Psalm 69
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David.
1Save me, God,
for the waters have come up to my neck!
2I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold.
I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3I am weary with my crying.
My throat is dry.
My eyes fail looking for my God.
4Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.
Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty.
I have to restore what I didn’t take away.
5God, you know my foolishness.
My sins aren’t hidden from you.
6Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord GOD of Armies.
Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
7Because for your sake, I have borne reproach.
Shame has covered my face.
8I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s children.
9For the zeal of your house consumes me.
The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10When I wept and I fasted,
that was to my reproach.
11When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them.
12Those who sit in the gate talk about me.
I am the song of the drunkards.
13But as for me, my prayer is to you, LORD, in an acceptable time.
God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.
14Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink.
Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
15Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me,
neither let the deep swallow me up.
Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
16Answer me, LORD, for your loving kindness is good.
According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
17Don’t hide your face from your servant,
for I am in distress.
Answer me speedily!
18Draw near to my soul and redeem it.
Ransom me because of my enemies.
19You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor.
My adversaries are all before you.
20Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.
I looked for some to take pity, but there was none;
for comforters, but I found none.
21They also gave me poison for my food.
In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
22Let their table before them become a snare.
May it become a retribution and a trap.
23Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see.
Let their backs be continually bent.
24Pour out your indignation on them.
Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
25Let their habitation be desolate.
Let no one dwell in their tents.
26For they persecute him whom you have wounded.
They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
27Charge them with crime upon crime.
Don’t let them come into your righteousness.
28Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
and not be written with the righteous.
29But I am in pain and distress.
Let your salvation, God, protect me.
30I will praise the name of God with a song,
and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31It will please the LORD better than an ox,
or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
32The humble have seen it, and are glad.
You who seek after God, let your heart live.
33For the LORD hears the needy,
and doesn’t despise his captive people.
34Let heaven and earth praise him;
the seas, and everything that moves therein!
35For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah.
They shall settle there, and own it.
36The children also of his servants shall inherit it.
Those who love his name shall dwell therein.
Psalm 70
For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder.
1Hurry, God, to deliver me.
Come quickly to help me, LORD.
2Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my soul.
Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.
3Let them be turned because of their shame
who say, “Aha! Aha!”
4Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.
Let those who love your salvation continually say,
“Let God be exalted!”
5But I am poor and needy.
Come to me quickly, God.
You are my help and my deliverer.
LORD, don’t delay.
Psalm 71
1In you, LORD, I take refuge.
Never let me be disappointed.
2Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me.
Turn your ear to me, and save me.
3Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go.
Give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5For you are my hope, Lord GOD,
my confidence from my youth.
6I have relied on you from the womb.
You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb.
I will always praise you.
7I am a marvel to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8My mouth shall be filled with your praise,
with your honor all day long.
9Don’t reject me in my old age.
Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.
10For my enemies talk about me.
Those who watch for my soul conspire together,
11saying, “God has forsaken him.
Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”
12God, don’t be far from me.
My God, hurry to help me.
13Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed.
Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.
14But I will always hope,
and will add to all of your praise.
15My mouth will tell about your righteousness,
and of your salvation all day,
though I don’t know its full measure.
16I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord GOD.
I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.
17God, you have taught me from my youth.
Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.
18Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don’t forsake me,
until I have declared your strength to the next generation,
your might to everyone who is to come.
19God, your righteousness also reaches to the heavens.
You have done great things.
God, who is like you?
20You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles,
you will let me live.
You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
21Increase my honor
and comfort me again.
22I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God.
I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.
23My lips shall shout for joy!
My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!
24My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long,
for they are disappointed, and they are confounded,
who want to harm me.
Psalm 72
By Solomon.
1God, give the king your justice;
your righteousness to the royal son.
2He will judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
3The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people.
The hills bring the fruit of righteousness.
4He will judge the poor of the people.
He will save the children of the needy,
and will break the oppressor in pieces.
5They shall fear you while the sun endures;
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
6He will come down like rain on the mown grass,
as showers that water the earth.
7In his days, the righteous shall flourish,
and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more.
8He shall have dominion also from sea to sea,
from the River to the ends of the earth.
9Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him.
His enemies shall lick the dust.
10The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute.
The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
11Yes, all kings shall fall down before him.
All nations shall serve him.
12For he will deliver the needy when he cries;
the poor, who has no helper.
13He will have pity on the poor and needy.
He will save the souls of the needy.
14He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence.
Their blood will be precious in his sight.
15He will live; and Sheba’s gold will be given to him.
Men will pray for him continually.
They will bless him all day long.
16Abundance of grain shall be throughout the land.
Its fruit sways like Lebanon.
Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field.
17His name endures forever.
His name continues as long as the sun.
Men shall be blessed by him.
All nations will call him blessed.
Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel,
who alone does marvelous deeds.
19Blessed be his glorious name forever!
Let the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and amen.
This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse.
Psalm 73
BOOK 3
A Psalm by Asaph.
1Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2But as for me, my feet were almost gone.
My steps had nearly slipped.
3For I was envious of the arrogant,
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4For there are no struggles in their death,
but their strength is firm.
5They are free from burdens of men,
neither are they plagued like other men.
6Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck.
Violence covers them like a garment.
7Their eyes bulge with fat.
Their minds pass the limits of conceit.
8They scoff and speak with malice.
In arrogance, they threaten oppression.
9They have set their mouth in the heavens.
Their tongue walks through the earth.
10Therefore their people return to them,
and they drink up waters of abundance.
11They say, “How does God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12Behold, these are the wicked.
Being always at ease, they increase in riches.
13Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain,
and washed my hands in innocence,
14For all day long I have been plagued,
and punished every morning.
15If I had said, “I will speak thus”,
behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16When I tried to understand this,
it was too painful for me—
17until I entered God’s sanctuary,
and considered their latter end.
18Surely you set them in slippery places.
You throw them down to destruction.
19How they are suddenly destroyed!
They are completely swept away with terrors.
20As a dream when one wakes up,
so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.
21For my soul was grieved.
I was embittered in my heart.
22I was so senseless and ignorant.
I was a brute beast before you.
23Nevertheless, I am continually with you.
You have held my right hand.
24You will guide me with your counsel,
and afterward receive me to glory.
25Whom do I have in heaven?
There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you.
26My flesh and my heart fails,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish.
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.
28But it is good for me to come close to God.
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.
Psalm 74
A contemplation by Asaph.
1God, why have you rejected us forever?
Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
2Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old,
which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance:
Mount Zion, in which you have lived.
3Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins,
all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
4Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly.
They have set up their standards as signs.
5They behaved like men wielding axes,
cutting through a thicket of trees.
6Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.
7They have burned your sanctuary to the ground.
They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.
8They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.”
They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.
9We see no miraculous signs.
There is no longer any prophet,
neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.
10How long, God, shall the adversary reproach?
Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
11Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand?
Take it from your chest and consume them!
Yet God is my King of old,
working salvation throughout the earth.
13You divided the sea by your strength.
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces.
You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.
15You opened up spring and stream.
You dried up mighty rivers.
16The day is yours, the night is also yours.
You have prepared the light and the sun.
17You have set all the boundaries of the earth.
You have made summer and winter.
Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD.
Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
19Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts.
Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.
20Honor your covenant,
for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
21Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed.
Let the poor and needy praise your name.
22Arise, God! Plead your own cause.
Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.
23Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries.
The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.
Psalm 75
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm by Asaph. A song.
1We give thanks to you, God.
We give thanks, for your Name is near.
Men tell about your wondrous works.
When I choose the appointed time,
I will judge blamelessly.
3The earth and all its inhabitants quake.
I firmly hold its pillars. Selah.
4I said to the arrogant, “Don’t boast!”
I said to the wicked, “Don’t lift up the horn.
5Don’t lift up your horn on high.
Don’t speak with a stiff neck.”
6For neither from the east, nor from the west,
nor yet from the south, comes exaltation.
7But God is the judge.
He puts down one, and lifts up another.
8For in the LORD’s hand there is a cup,
full of foaming wine mixed with spices.
He pours it out.
Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.
But I will declare this forever:
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10I will cut off all the horns of the wicked,
but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.
Psalm 76
For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm by Asaph. A song.
1In Judah, God is known.
His name is great in Israel.
2His tabernacle is also in Salem.
His dwelling place in Zion.
3There he broke the flaming arrows of the bow,
the shield, and the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah.
4Glorious are you, and excellent,
more than mountains of game.
5Valiant men lie plundered,
they have slept their last sleep.
None of the men of war can lift their hands.
6At your rebuke, God of Jacob,
both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
7You, even you, are to be feared.
Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?
8You pronounced judgment from heaven.
The earth feared, and was silent,
9when God arose to judgment,
to save all the afflicted ones of the earth. Selah.
10Surely the wrath of man praises you.
The survivors of your wrath are restrained.
11Make vows to the LORD your God, and fulfill them!
Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.
12He will cut off the spirit of princes.
He is feared by the kings of the earth.
Psalm 77
For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm by Asaph.
1My cry goes to God!
Indeed, I cry to God for help,
and for him to listen to me.
2In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord.
My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired.
My soul refused to be comforted.
3I remember God, and I groan.
I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.
You hold my eyelids open.
I am so troubled that I can’t speak.
5I have considered the days of old,
the years of ancient times.
6I remember my song in the night.
I consider in my own heart;
my spirit diligently inquires:
7“Will the Lord reject us forever?
Will he be favorable no more?
8Has his loving kindness vanished forever?
Does his promise fail for generations?
9Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.
10Then I thought, “I will appeal to this:
the years of the right hand of the Most High.”
11I will remember the LORD’s deeds;
for I will remember your wonders of old.
12I will also meditate on all your work,
and consider your doings.
13Your way, God, is in the sanctuary.
What god is great like God?
14You are the God who does wonders.
You have made your strength known among the peoples.
15You have redeemed your people with your arm,
the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
16The waters saw you, God.
The waters saw you, and they writhed.
The depths also convulsed.
17The clouds poured out water.
The skies resounded with thunder.
Your arrows also flashed around.
18The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind.
The lightnings lit up the world.
The earth trembled and shook.
19Your way was through the sea,
your paths through the great waters.
Your footsteps were not known.
20You led your people like a flock,
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psalm 78
A contemplation by Asaph.
1Hear my teaching, my people.
Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
2I will open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings of old,
3which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
4We will not hide them from their children,
telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD,
his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done.
5For he established a covenant in Jacob,
and appointed a teaching in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers,
that they should make them known to their children;
6that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born;
who should arise and tell their children,
7that they might set their hope in God,
and not forget God’s deeds,
but keep his commandments,
8and might not be as their fathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal,
whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
9The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows,
turned back in the day of battle.
10They didn’t keep God’s covenant,
and refused to walk in his law.
11They forgot his doings,
his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.
12He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers,
in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13He split the sea, and caused them to pass through.
He made the waters stand as a heap.
14In the daytime he also led them with a cloud,
and all night with a light of fire.
15He split rocks in the wilderness,
and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.
16He brought streams also out of the rock,
and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17Yet they still went on to sin against him,
to rebel against the Most High in the desert.
18They tempted God in their heart
by asking food according to their desire.
19Yes, they spoke against God.
They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out,
and streams overflowed.
Can he give bread also?
Will he provide meat for his people?”
21Therefore the LORD heard, and was angry.
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
anger also went up against Israel,
22because they didn’t believe in God,
and didn’t trust in his salvation.
23Yet he commanded the skies above,
and opened the doors of heaven.
24He rained down manna on them to eat,
and gave them food from the sky.
25Man ate the bread of angels.
He sent them food to the full.
26He caused the east wind to blow in the sky.
By his power he guided the south wind.
27He also rained meat on them as the dust,
winged birds as the sand of the seas.
28He let them fall in the middle of their camp,
around their habitations.
29So they ate, and were well filled.
He gave them their own desire.
30They didn’t turn from their cravings.
Their food was yet in their mouths,
31when the anger of God went up against them,
killed some of their strongest,
and struck down the young men of Israel.
32For all this they still sinned,
and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.
33Therefore he consumed their days in vanity,
and their years in terror.
34When he killed them, then they inquired after him.
They returned and sought God earnestly.
35They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God, their redeemer.
36But they flattered him with their mouth,
and lied to him with their tongue.
37For their heart was not right with him,
neither were they faithful in his covenant.
38But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them.
Yes, many times he turned his anger away,
and didn’t stir up all his wrath.
39He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.
40How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness,
and grieved him in the desert!
41They turned again and tempted God,
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
42They didn’t remember his hand,
nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;
43how he set his signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the field of Zoan,
44he turned their rivers into blood,
and their streams, so that they could not drink.
45He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them;
and frogs, which destroyed them.
46He also gave their increase to the caterpillar,
and their labor to the locust.
47He destroyed their vines with hail,
their sycamore fig trees with frost.
48He also gave over their livestock to the hail,
and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49He threw on them the fierceness of his anger,
wrath, indignation, and trouble,
and a band of angels of evil.
50He made a path for his anger.
He didn’t spare their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the pestilence,
51and struck all the firstborn in Egypt,
the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52But he led out his own people like sheep,
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54He brought them to the border of his sanctuary,
to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.
55He also drove out the nations before them,
allotted them for an inheritance by line,
and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God,
and didn’t keep his testimonies,
57but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers.
They were twisted like a deceitful bow.
58For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.
59When God heard this, he was angry,
and greatly abhorred Israel,
60so that he abandoned the tent of Shiloh,
the tent which he placed among men,
61and delivered his strength into captivity,
his glory into the adversary’s hand.
62He also gave his people over to the sword,
and was angry with his inheritance.
63Fire devoured their young men.
Their virgins had no wedding song.
64Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows couldn’t weep.
65Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep,
like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.
66He struck his adversaries backward.
He put them to a perpetual reproach.
67Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph,
and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.
69He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth which he has established forever.
70He also chose David his servant,
and took him from the sheepfolds;
71from following the ewes that have their young,
he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people,
and Israel, his inheritance.
72So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart,
and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
Psalm 79
A Psalm by Asaph.
1God, the nations have come into your inheritance.
They have defiled your holy temple.
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
2They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky,
the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.
3They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem.
There was no one to bury them.
4We have become a reproach to our neighbors,
a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
5How long, LORD?
Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
6Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you,
on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name,
7for they have devoured Jacob,
and destroyed his homeland.
8Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us.
Let your tender mercies speedily meet us,
for we are in desperate need.
9Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake.
10Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes,
that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.
11Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you.
According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.
12Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom
their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
13So we, your people and sheep of your pasture,
will give you thanks forever.
We will praise you forever, to all generations.
Psalm 80
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm by Asaph.
1Hear us, Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock,
you who sit above the cherubim, shine out.
2Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up your might!
Come to save us!
3Turn us again, God.
Cause your face to shine,
and we will be saved.
LORD God of Armies,
how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?
5You have fed them with the bread of tears,
and given them tears to drink in large measure.
6You make us a source of contention to our neighbors.
Our enemies laugh among themselves.
7Turn us again, God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine,
and we will be saved.
You brought a vine out of Egypt.
You drove out the nations, and planted it.
9You cleared the ground for it.
It took deep root, and filled the land.
10The mountains were covered with its shadow.
Its boughs were like God’s cedars.
11It sent out its branches to the sea,
its shoots to the River.
12Why have you broken down its walls,
so that all those who pass by the way pluck it?
13The boar out of the wood ravages it.
The wild animals of the field feed on it.
14Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies.
Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,
15the stock which your right hand planted,
the branch that you made strong for yourself.
16It’s burned with fire.
It’s cut down.
They perish at your rebuke.
17Let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.
18So we will not turn away from you.
Revive us, and we will call on your name.
19Turn us again, LORD God of Armies.
Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved.