Psalm 4:7–9:20

⁷You have put gladness in my heart

more than when^l their grain and their wine abound.

⁸In peace I will lie down and sleep at once,^m

for you alone, O Yahweh, make me dwell safely.

A Prayer for Guidance and Protection

5For the music director; with the flutes. A psalm of David.^a

¹Hear my words, O Yahweh.

Give heed to my sighing.^b

²Listen to the sound of my pleading,^c my king and my God,

for to you I pray.

³O Yahweh, in the morning you will hear my voice.

In the morning I will set forth^d my case to you and I will watch.^e

⁴For you are not a God who desires^f wickedness.

Evil cannot dwell with you.

⁵The boastful do not stand before^g your eyes.

You hate all evildoers.

⁶You destroy speakers of lies.^h

A man of bloodshedⁱ and deceit Yahweh abhors.

⁷But as for me,^j through the abundance of your steadfast love^k

I will enter your house.^l

I will bow down^m toward your holy templeⁿ in awe of you.

⁸O Yahweh, lead me in your righteousness because of my enemies;

make straight before me your way.

⁹For there is not anything reliable in his mouth;

their inner part is destruction.^o

Their throat is an open grave;

with their tongue they speak deceit.^p

¹⁰Treat them as guilty, O God;

let them fall because of their plans.

Because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,

for they have rebelled against you.

¹¹But let all who take shelter in you rejoice.

Let them ever^q sing for joy,

because^r you spread protection over them;

And let those^s who love your name exult in you.

¹²For you bless the righteous.

O Yahweh, like a^t shield you surround him with good favor.

An Appeal for Forgiveness and Deliverance

6For the music director; with stringed instruments, on the Sheminith.^a

A psalm of David.^b

¹O Yahweh, do not rebuke me in your anger,

and do not discipline me in your wrath.

²Be gracious to me, O Yahweh, because I am feeble.

Heal me, O Yahweh, for my bones are terrified.

³My soul is also very terrified.

But you, O Yahweh, how long?

⁴Turn, O Yahweh; deliver my life.^c

Save me for the sake of your steadfast love.^d

⁵For there is no remembrance of you in death.

In Sheol, who will give thanks to you?

⁶I am weary with my groaning;

I flood^e my bed every night.

With my tears I drench^f my couch.

⁷My eye wastes away because of vexation;

it grows old because of all my oppressors.

⁸Depart from me, all workers of evil,

for Yahweh has heard the sound of my weeping.

⁹Yahweh has heard my plea;

Yahweh has accepted my prayer.

¹⁰All my enemies shall be ashamed and shall be very terrified.

They shall turn back; they shall suddenly be ashamed.

Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

7A Shiggaion^a of David which he sang to Yahweh

on account of Cush, a Benjaminite.^b

¹O Yahweh, my God, in you I have taken refuge.

Save me from all who pursue me, and deliver me.

²Or else he will tear me apart like a lion,

ripping to pieces, with none to deliver.

³O Yahweh, my God, if I have done this,

if there is wrong in my hands,

⁴if I have repaid my ally^c with harm,

or if I have plundered my enemy without cause,

⁵let the enemy of my soul pursue,

and overtake and trample my life into the ground,

and lay my honor in the dust. Selah

⁶Rise up, O Yahweh, in your anger,

and lift yourself up against the wrath^d of my oppressors,

and awake for me,

since you have commanded judgment.

⁷And let the assembly of peoples surround you,

and over it return on high.

⁸Yahweh judges the nations.

O Yahweh, vindicate me

according to my innocence^e and according to my integrity within me.

⁹Let the evil of the wicked come to an end,

but establish the righteous,

and test the hearts and innermost being, O righteous God.

¹⁰My shield is with God

who saves the upright of heart.

¹¹God is a righteous judge,

and a God who has indignation every day.

¹²If he^f does not repent, he^g will sharpen his sword.

He has bent his bow and he has strung^h it.

¹³And he has prepared for him weapons of death.

He has made his arrows fiery shafts.

¹⁴See, heⁱ travails with^j evil.

He is pregnant with trouble,

and he gives birth to deception.

¹⁵He makes a pit and digs it out,

then falls in the trap he has made.

¹⁶His trouble comes back on his head,

and his violence comes down on his skull.

¹⁷I will thank Yahweh according to his righteousness,

and I will sing praise to the name of Yahweh, the Most High.

Yahweh’s Glory in Creation

8For the music director, on the Gittith.^a A psalm of David.^b

¹Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth,

who put your splendor above the heavens.

²From the mouth of children and infants you have founded^c strength

on account of your enemies,

to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars which you set in place—

⁴what is a human being that you think of him?

and a child of humankind that you care for him?

⁵And you made him a little lower than heavenly beings,^d

and with glory and with majesty you crowned him.

⁶You make him over the works of your hands;

all things you have placed under his feet:

⁷sheep and cattle, all of them,

and also the wild animals of the field,

⁸the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea,

everything that passes along the paths of seas.

⁹Yahweh, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all of the earth!

Praise for Yahweh’s Justice

9For the music director, according to Muth-labben.^a A psalm of David.^b

¹I will thank Yahweh with all my heart.

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

²I will be glad and rejoice in you.

I will sing the praise of your name, O Most High.

³When my enemies turn back,

they will stumble and perish because of your presence.

⁴For you have maintained my just cause;

you have sat on the throne judging correctly.

⁵You have rebuked the nations;

you have destroyed the wicked.

Their name you have blotted out

forever and ever.

⁶The enemies are destroyed in ruins forever,

and you have uprooted their cities;

their very memory has perished.

⁷But Yahweh sits enthroned forever.

He has established his throne for judgment.

⁸And he will judge the world with righteousness.

He will judge the peoples with equity.

⁹And Yahweh will be a stronghold for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of distress.

¹⁰And those who know your name will trust in you,

for you do not forsake those who seek you, O Yahweh.

¹¹Sing praises to Yahweh who sits enthroned^c in Zion.

Tell his deeds among the peoples,

¹²for he who avenges bloodshed^d remembers them.

He does not forget the distressed cry of the afflicted.

¹³Be gracious to me, O Yahweh.

See my suffering from those who hate me,

you who lift me up from the gates of death,

¹⁴so that I may tell of all your praises.

In the gates of the daughter of Zion

let me rejoice in your salvation.

¹⁵The nations have fallen in the pit that they made;

their foot is caught in the net that they hid.

¹⁶Yahweh has made himself known;

he has executed judgment.

The wicked is snared by the work of his hands. Higgaion^e Selah

¹⁷The wicked shall turn back to Sheol,

all the nations forgetting God,

¹⁸for the needy shall not always be forgotten;

the hope of the poor shall never perish.

¹⁹Rise up, O Yahweh, let not humans^e prevail;

let the nations be judged before you.

²⁰O Yahweh, put them in fear.

Let the nations know they are merely human. Selah