Psalm 7–8

Psalm 7

Plea for Help against Persecutors

A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjaminite.

¹O Lord my God, in you I take refuge;

save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,^*

²or like a lion they will tear me apart;

they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.^*

³O Lord my God, if I have done this,

if there is wrong in my hands,^*

⁴if I have repaid my ally with harm

or plundered my foe without cause,^*

⁵then let the enemy pursue and overtake me,

trample my life to the ground,

and lay my soul in the dust.   Selah

⁶Rise up, O Lord, in your anger;

lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;

awake, O my God;^d you have appointed a judgment.^*

⁷Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you,

and over it take your seat^e on high.^*

⁸The Lord judges the peoples;

judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness

and according to the integrity that is in me.^*

⁹O let the evil of the wicked come to an end,

but establish the righteous,

you who test the minds and hearts,

O righteous God.^*

¹⁰God is my shield,

who saves the upright in heart.^*

¹¹God is a righteous judge

and a God who has indignation every day.^*

¹²If one does not repent, God^f will whet his sword;

he has bent and strung his bow;^*

¹³he has prepared his deadly weapons,

making his arrows fiery shafts.^*

¹⁴See how they conceive evil

and are pregnant with mischief

and bring forth lies.^*

¹⁵They make a pit, digging it out,

and fall into the hole that they have made.^*

¹⁶Their mischief returns upon their own heads,

and on their own heads their violence descends.^*

¹⁷I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness

and sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.^*

Psalm 8

Divine Majesty and Human Dignity

To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.

¹O Lord, our Sovereign,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.^*

²Out of the mouths of babes and infants

you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,

to silence the enemy and the avenger.^*

³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;^*

⁴what are humans that you are mindful of them,

mortals^g that you care for them?^*

⁵Yet you have made them a little lower than God^h

and crowned them with glory and honor.^*

⁶You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under their feet,^*

⁷all sheep and oxen,

and also the beasts of the field,

⁸the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,

whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

⁹O Lord, our Sovereign,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!^*