Psalm 10–12

^1–210God, are you avoiding me?

Where are you when I need you?

Full of hot air, the wicked

are hot on the trail of the poor.

Trip them up, tangle them up

in their fine-tuned plots.

^3–4The wicked are windbags,

the swindlers have foul breath.

The wicked snub God,

their noses stuck high in the air.

Their graffiti are scrawled on the walls:

“Catch us if you can!” “God is dead.”

^5–6They care nothing for what you think;

if you get in their way, they blow you off.

They live (they think) a charmed life:

“We can’t go wrong. This is our lucky year!”

^7–8They carry a mouthful of hexes,

their tongues spit venom like adders.

They hide behind ordinary people,

then pounce on their victims.

⁹They mark the luckless,

then wait like a hunter in a blind;

When the poor wretch wanders too close,

they stab him in the back.

^10–11The hapless fool is kicked to the ground,

the unlucky victim is brutally axed.

He thinks God has dumped him,

he’s sure that God is indifferent to his plight.

^12–13Time to get up, God—get moving.

The luckless think they’re Godforsaken.

They wonder why the wicked scorn God

and get away with it,

Why the wicked are so cocksure

they’ll never come up for audit.

¹⁴But you know all about it—

the contempt, the abuse.

I dare to believe that the luckless

will get lucky someday in you.

You won’t let them down:

orphans won’t be orphans forever.

^15–16Break the wicked right arms,

break all the evil left arms.

Search and destroy

every sign of crime.

God’s grace and order wins;

godlessness loses.

^17–18The victim’s faint pulse picks up;

the hearts of the hopeless pump red blood

as you put your ear to their lips.

Orphans get parents,

the homeless get homes.

The reign of terror is over,

the rule of the gang lords is ended.

A David Psalm

^1–311I’ve already run for dear life

straight to the arms of God.

So why would I run away now

when you say,

“Run to the mountains; the evil

bows are bent, the wicked arrows

Aimed to shoot under cover of darkness

at every heart open to God.

The bottom’s dropped out of the country;

good people don’t have a chance”?

^4–6But God hasn’t moved to the mountains;

his holy address hasn’t changed.

He’s in charge, as always, his eyes

taking everything in, his eyelids

Unblinking, examining Adam’s unruly brood

inside and out, not missing a thing.

He tests the good and the bad alike;

if anyone cheats, God’s outraged.

Fail the test and you’re out,

out in a hail of firestones,

Drinking from a canteen

filled with hot desert wind.

⁷God’s business is putting things right;

he loves getting the lines straight,

Setting us straight. Once we’re standing tall,

we can look him straight in the eye.

A David Psalm

^1–212Quick, God, I need your helping hand!

The last decent person just went down,

All the friends I depended on gone.

Everyone talks in lie language;

Lies slide off their oily lips.

They double-talk with forked tongues.

^3–4Slice their lips off their faces! Pull

The braggart tongues from their mouths!

I’m tired of hearing, “We can talk anyone into anything!

Our lips manage the world.”

⁵Into the hovels of the poor,

Into the dark streets where the homeless groan, God speaks:

“I’ve had enough; I’m on my way

To heal the ache in the heart of the wretched.”

^6–8God’s words are pure words,

Pure silver words refined seven times

In the fires of his word-kiln,

Pure on earth as well as in heaven.

God, keep us safe from their lies,

From the wicked who stalk us with lies,

From the wicked who collect honors

For their wonderful lies.