38  Yet he, being ^ocompassionate,

^patoned for their iniquity

and did not destroy them;

he restrained his anger often

and did not stir up all his wrath.

39  He ^qremembered that they were but ^rflesh,

^sa wind that passes and comes not again.

40  How often they ^trebelled against him in the wilderness

and ^ugrieved him in ^vthe desert!

41  They ^wtested God again and again

and provoked ^xthe Holy One of Israel.

42  They ^ydid not remember his power¹

or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,

43  ^zwhen he performed his ^asigns in Egypt

and his ^bmarvels in ^cthe fields of Zoan.

44  He ^dturned their rivers to blood,

so that they could not drink of their streams.

45  He sent among them swarms of ^eflies, which devoured them,

and ^ffrogs, which destroyed them.

46  He gave their crops to ^gthe destroying locust

and the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47  He destroyed their vines with ^hhail

and their sycamores with frost.

48  He gave over their ⁱcattle to the hail

and their flocks to thunderbolts.

49  He let loose on them his burning anger,

wrath, indignation, and distress,

a company of ^jdestroying angels.

50  He made a path for his anger;

he did not spare them from death,

but gave their lives over to the plague.

51  He struck down every ^kfirstborn in Egypt,

the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of ^lHam.

52  Then he led out his people ^mlike sheep

and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

53  ⁿHe led them in safety, so that they ^owere not afraid,

but ^pthe sea overwhelmed their enemies.

54  And he brought them to his ^qholy land,

^rto the mountain which his right hand had ^swon.

55  He ^tdrove out nations before them;

he ^uapportioned them for a possession

and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

56  Yet they ^vtested and ^wrebelled against the Most High God

and did not keep his testimonies,

57  but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;

they twisted like ^xa deceitful bow.

58  For they ^yprovoked him to anger with their ^zhigh places;

they ^amoved him to jealousy with their ^bidols.

59  When God heard, he was full of ^cwrath,

and he utterly rejected Israel.

60  He ^dforsook his dwelling at ^eShiloh,

the tent where he dwelt among mankind,

61  and delivered his ^fpower to captivity,

his ^gglory to the hand of the foe.

62  He ^hgave his people over to the sword

and ⁱvented his wrath on his heritage.

63  ^jFire devoured their young men,

and their young women had no ^kmarriage song.

64  Their ^lpriests fell by the sword,

and their ^mwidows made no lamentation.

65  Then the Lord ⁿawoke as from sleep,

like a strong man shouting because of wine.

66  And he ^oput his adversaries to rout;

he put them to everlasting shame.

67  He rejected the tent of ^pJoseph;

he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

68  but he chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which he ^qloves.

69  He ^rbuilt his sanctuary like the high heavens,

like the earth, which he has founded forever.

70  He ^schose David his servant

and took him from the sheepfolds;

71  from ^tfollowing the nursing ewes he brought him

to ^ushepherd Jacob his people,

Israel his ^vinheritance.

72  With ^wupright heart he shepherded them

and ^xguided them with his skillful hand.

“We have a strong city;

he sets up ^fsalvation

as walls and bulwarks.

2  ^gOpen the gates,

that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.

3  ^hYou keep him in perfect peace

whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you.

4  Trust in the Lord forever,

for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

5  ⁱFor he has humbled

the inhabitants of the height,

the lofty city.

He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,

casts it to the dust.

6  The foot tramples it,

the feet of ^jthe poor,

the steps of ^jthe needy.”

7  The path of the righteous is level;

^kyou make level the way of the righteous.

8  In the path of your judgments,

O Lord, we wait for you;

^lyour name and ^lremembrance

are the desire of our soul.

9  My soul yearns for you in the night;

my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.

^mFor when your judgments are in the earth,

the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

10  ⁿIf favor is shown to the wicked,

he does not learn righteousness;

in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly

and does not see the majesty of the Lord.

11  O Lord, ^oyour hand is lifted up,

but ^pthey do not see it.

Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.

Let ^qthe fire for your adversaries consume them.

12  O Lord, you will ordain ^rpeace for us,

for you have indeed done for us all our works.

13  O Lord our God,

^sother lords besides you have ruled over us,

^tbut your name alone we bring to remembrance.

14  They are dead, they will not live;

they are shades, they will not arise;

to that end you have visited them with destruction

and wiped out all remembrance of them.

15  ^uBut you have increased the nation, O Lord,

you have increased the nation; you are glorified;

^vyou have enlarged all the borders of the land.

16  O Lord, ^win distress they sought you;

they poured out a whispered prayer

when your discipline was upon them.

17  ^xLike a pregnant woman

who writhes and cries out in her pangs

when she is near to giving birth,

so were we because of you, O Lord;

18  ^xwe were pregnant, we writhed,

but we have given birth to wind.

We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,

and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

19  ^yYour dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.

You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!

For ^zyour dew is a dew of light,

and the earth will give birth to the dead.

20  Come, my people, enter your chambers,

and shut your doors behind you;

hide yourselves ^afor a little while

until the fury has passed by.

21  ^bFor behold, the Lord is coming out from his place

to punish the inhabitants of ^cthe earth for their iniquity,

and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,

and will no more cover its slain.