Psalm 94–96

God Will Pay Back His Enemies

94The Lord is a God who punishes.

God, show your greatness and punish!

²Rise up, Judge of the earth,

and give the proud what they deserve.

³How long will the wicked be happy?

How long, Lord?

⁴They are full of proud words;

those who do evil brag about what they have done.

⁵Lord, they crush your people

and make your children suffer.

⁶They kill widows and foreigners

and murder orphans.

⁷They say, “The Lord doesn’t see;

the God of Jacob doesn’t notice.”

⁸You stupid ones among the people, pay attention.

You fools, when will you understand?

⁹Can’t the creator of ears hear?

Can’t the maker of eyes see?

¹⁰Won’t the one who corrects nations punish you?

Doesn’t the teacher of people know everything?

¹¹The Lord knows what people think.

He knows their thoughts are just a puff of wind.

¹²Lord, those you correct are happy;

you teach them from your law.

¹³You give them rest from times of trouble

until a pit is dug for the wicked.

¹⁴The Lord won’t leave his people

nor give up his children.

¹⁵Judgment will again be fair,

and all who are honest will follow it.

¹⁶Who will help me fight against the wicked?

Who will stand with me against those who do evil?

¹⁷If the Lord had not helped me,

I would have died in a minute.

¹⁸I said, “I am about to fall,”

but, Lord, your love kept me safe.

¹⁹I was very worried,

but you comforted me and made me happy.

²⁰Crooked leaders cannot be your friends.

They use the law to cause suffering.

²¹They join forces against people who do right

and sentence to death the innocent.

²²But the Lord is my defender;

my God is the rock of my protection.

²³God will pay them back for their sins

and will destroy them for their evil.

The Lord our God will destroy them.

A Call to Praise and Obedience

95Come, let’s sing for joy to the Lord.

Let’s shout praises to the Rock who saves us.

²Let’s come to him with thanksgiving.

Let’s sing songs to him,

³because the Lord is the great God,

the great King over all gods.

⁴The deepest places on earth are his,

and the highest mountains belong to him.

⁵The sea is his because he made it,

and he created the land with his own hands.

⁶Come, let’s worship him and bow down.

Let’s kneel before the Lord who made us,

⁷because he is our God

and we are the people he takes care of,

the sheep that he tends.

Today listen to what he says:

⁸“Do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were at Meribah,

as they were that day at Massah in the desert.

⁹There your ancestors tested me

and tried me even though they saw what I did.

¹⁰I was angry with those people for forty years.

I said, ‘They are not loyal to me

and have not understood my ways.’

¹¹I was angry and made a promise,

‘They will never enter my rest.’ ”

Praise for the Lord’s Glory

96Sing to the Lord a new song;

sing to the Lord, all the earth.

²Sing to the Lord and praise his name;

every day tell how he saves us.

³Tell the nations of his glory;

tell all peoples the miracles he does,

⁴because the Lord is great; he should be praised at all times.

He should be honored more than all the gods,

⁵because all the gods of the nations are only idols,

but the Lord made the heavens.

⁶The Lord has glory and majesty;

he has power and beauty in his Temple.

⁷Praise the Lord, all nations on earth;

praise the Lord’s glory and power.

⁸Praise the glory of the Lord’s name.

Bring an offering and come into his Temple courtyards.

⁹Worship the Lord because he is holy.

Tremble before him, everyone on earth.

¹⁰Tell the nations, “The Lord is king.”

The earth is set, and it cannot be moved.

He will judge the people fairly.

¹¹Let the skies rejoice and the earth be glad;

let the sea and everything in it shout.

¹²Let the fields and everything in them rejoice.

Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy

¹³before the Lord, because he is coming.

He is coming to judge the world;

he will judge the world with fairness

and the peoples with truth.