Psalm 83–84

A Prayer Against the Enemies

A song. A psalm of Asaph.

83God, do not keep quiet;

God, do not be silent or still.

²Your enemies are making noises;

those who hate you are getting ready to attack.

³They are making secret plans against your people;

they plot against those you love.

⁴They say, “Come, let’s destroy them as a nation.

Then no one will ever remember the name ‘Israel.’ ”

⁵They are united in their plan.

These have made an agreement against you:

⁶the families of Edom and the Ishmaelites,

Moab and the Hagrites,

⁷the people of Byblos, Ammon, Amalek,

Philistia, and Tyre.

⁸Even Assyria has joined them

to help Ammon and Moab, the descendants of Lot.

Selah

⁹God, do to them what you did to Midian,

what you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.

¹⁰They died at Endor,

and their bodies rotted on the ground.

¹¹Do to their important leaders what you did to Oreb and Zeeb.

Do to their princes what you did to Zebah and Zalmunna.

¹²They said, “Let’s take for ourselves

the pasturelands that belong to God.”

¹³My God, make them like tumbleweed,

like chaff blown away by the wind.

¹⁴Be like a fire that burns a forest

or like flames that blaze through the hills.

¹⁵Chase them with your storm,

and frighten them with your wind.

¹⁶Cover them with shame.

Then people will look for you, Lord.

¹⁷Make them afraid and ashamed forever.

Disgrace them and destroy them.

¹⁸Then they will know that you are the Lord,

that only you are God Most High over all the earth.

Wishing to Be in the Temple

For the director of music. On the gittith. A psalm of the sons of Korah.

84Lord All-Powerful,

how lovely is your Temple!

²I want more than anything

to be in the courtyards of the Lord’s Temple.

My whole being wants

to be with the living God.

³The sparrows have found a home,

and the swallows have nests.

They raise their young near your altars,

Lord All-Powerful, my King and my God.

⁴Happy are the people who live at your Temple;

they are always praising you.

Selah

⁵Happy are those whose strength comes from you,

who want to travel to Jerusalem.

⁶As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it like a spring.

The autumn rains fill it with pools of water.

⁷The people get stronger as they go,

and everyone meets with God in Jerusalem.

⁸Lord God All-Powerful, hear my prayer;

God of Jacob, listen to me.

Selah

⁹God, look at our shield;

be kind to your appointed king.

¹⁰One day in the courtyards of your Temple is better

than a thousand days anywhere else.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the Temple of my God

than live in the homes of the wicked.

¹¹The Lord God is like a sun and shield;

the Lord gives us kindness and honor.

He does not hold back anything good

from those whose lives are innocent.

¹²Lord All-Powerful,

happy are the people who trust you!