Psalm 128–130

The Happy Home

A song for going up to worship.

128Happy are those who respect the Lord and obey him.

²You will enjoy what you work for,

and you will be blessed with good things.

³Your wife will give you many children,

like a vine that produces much fruit.

Your children will bring you much good,

like olive branches that produce many olives.

⁴This is how the man who respects the Lord

will be blessed.

⁵May the Lord bless you from Mount Zion;

may you enjoy the good things of Jerusalem all your life.

⁶May you see your grandchildren.

Let there be peace in Israel.

A Prayer Against the Enemies

A song for going up to worship.

129They have treated me badly all my life.

(Let Israel repeat this.)

²They have treated me badly all my life,

but they have not defeated me.

³Like farmers plowing, they plowed over my back,

making long wounds.

⁴But the Lord does what is right;

he has set me free from those wicked people.

⁵Let those who hate Jerusalem

be turned back in shame.

⁶Let them be like the grass on the roof

that dries up before it has grown.

⁷There is not enough of it to fill a hand

or to make into a bundle to fill one’s arms.

⁸Let those who pass by them not say,

“May the Lord bless you.

We bless you by the power of the Lord.”

A Prayer for Mercy

A song for going up to worship.

130Lord, I am in great trouble,

so I call out to you.

²Lord, hear my voice;

listen to my prayer for help.

³Lord, if you punished people for all their sins,

no one would be left, Lord.

⁴But you forgive us,

so you are respected.

⁵I wait for the Lord to help me,

and I trust his word.

⁶I wait for the Lord to help me

more than night watchmen wait for the dawn,

more than night watchmen wait for the dawn.

⁷People of Israel, put your hope in the Lord

because he is loving

and able to save.

⁸He will save Israel

from all their sins.