Psalm 40:1–42:11

¹I waited patiently for Yahweh,

And he inclined to me

and heard my cry for help.

²And so he brought me up from the roaring pit,^b

from the miry clay.

And he put my feet upon a rock;

he made my steps steady.

³Then he put a new song in my mouth,

a praise to our God.

Many will see and fear,

and will trust Yahweh.

⁴Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust

and does not turn to the proud and to those who fall away to a lie.^c

⁵Many things, O Yahweh my God, you have done—

your wonderful deeds and your thoughts toward us.

There is none to compare with you.

If I tried to proclaim and tell of them,

they would be too numerous to count.

⁶A sacrifice and offering you do not desire.

My ears you have opened.^d

Burnt offering and sin offering you have not demanded.

⁷Then I said, “Look, I come.

In the scroll of the book

it is written concerning me:

⁸‘I delight to do your will, O my God,

and your law is deep within me.’ ”^e

⁹I have brought good tidings of righteousness in the great congregation.

Look, I have not shut my lips.

O Yahweh, you surely know that.^f

¹⁰Your righteousness I have not hidden in the midst of my heart.

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.

I have not concealed your loyal love or your faithfulness

from the great congregation.

¹¹As for you, O Yahweh, do not withhold your mercies from me.

Let your loyal love and your faithfulness

continually preserve me.

¹²For evils without number have encompassed me.

My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see.

They are more than the hairs of my head,

and my heart fails me.

¹³Be pleased, O Yahweh, to deliver me.

O Yahweh, hurry to help me.

¹⁴Let them be shamed and abashed altogether

who seek to take away my life.^g

Let them be repulsed and humiliated

who desire my harm.

¹⁵Let them be appalled because of their shame,

those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”

¹⁶Let them rejoice and be glad in you,

all those who seek you.

Let them say continually, “Yahweh is great!”

—those who love your salvation.

¹⁷But I am poor and needy.

Let my Lord consider me.

You are my help and my deliverer.

O my God, do not delay.

Thanksgiving for God’s Provision in Time of Sickness

41For the music director. A psalm of David.^a

¹Blessed is the one who has regard for the poor;

in the day of disaster, Yahweh delivers him.

²Yahweh protects him and keeps him alive;

he is blessed in the land,

and you do not give him

into the will^b of his enemies.

³Yahweh sustains him on his sick bed.

In his illness, you restore to health.^c

⁴As for me, I said, “O Yahweh, be gracious to me.

Heal me,^d for I have sinned against you.”

⁵My enemies speak evil about me,

“When will he die and his name perish?”

⁶And when one comes to see me, he speaks falsely;

his heart gathers disaster for itself.

He goes out to the street; he speaks.

⁷All who hate me speak together against me.

Against me they assume the worst^e for me:

⁸“A ruinous thing is poured out on him,

and now that he lies down, he will not rise up again.”

⁹Even my close friend,^f whom I trusted,

who ate my bread,

has lifted his heel against me.

¹⁰But you, O Yahweh, be gracious to me and raise me up

that I may repay them.

¹¹By this I know that you delight in me:

because my enemy has not shouted in triumph over me.

¹²As for me, you have upheld me in my integrity,

and you have set me in your presence forever.

¹³Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting.

Amen and Amen.

Hope in God in the Midst of Despair

42For the music director. A maskil of the sons of Korah.^a

¹As a deer longs for streams of water,

so my soul longs for you, O God.

²My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?^b

³My tears have been my food day and night,

while they say to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

⁴These I remember and I pour out my soul within me:

that I would go with the multitude;

I led them in procession to the house^c of God,

with a voice of rejoicing and thanksgiving,

a crowd celebrating a festival.

⁵Why are you in despair,^d O my soul,

and disturbed within me?

Hope in God, because I will again praise him,

for the salvation of his presence.

⁶O my God, within me my soul is in despair;^e

therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan

and the heights of Hermon, from the mountain of Mizar.

⁷Deep is calling to deep

at^f the thunder of your waterfalls.

All your breakers and your waves

have passed over me.

⁸By day Yahweh commands his loyal love,

and in the night his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹I say to God, my rock,

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I walk about mourning

because of the oppression of the enemy?”

¹⁰As with a shattering in my bones

my oppressors taunt me,

while they say to me all day,^g

“Where is your God?”

¹¹Why are you in despair,^h O my soul?

And why are you disturbed within me?

Hope in God, because I shall again praise him,

my salvationⁱ and my God.