Let Your Glory Be over All the Earth
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam1 of David, uwhen he fled from Saul, vin the cave.
1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
win the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who xfulfills his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who ytramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
4 My soul is in the midst of zlions;
I lie down amid fiery beasts—
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
5 aBe exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They bdug a pit in my way,
but they have cfallen into it themselves. Selah
7 dMy heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast!
eI will sing and make melody!
8 Awake, my glory!2
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
9 fI will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is great gto the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
God Who Judges the Earth
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam3 of David.
1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?4
Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
your hands deal out violence on earth.
3 The wicked are hestranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
4 They have venom like the ivenom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 so that it does not hear the voice of jcharmers
or of the cunning enchanter.
6 O God, kbreak the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young llions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
when he maims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!5
10 nThe righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
he will bathe his ofeet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a pGod who judges on earth.”
Deliver Me from My Enemies
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam6 of David, qwhen Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him.
1 rDeliver me from my enemies, O my God;
protect me from those who rise up against me;
2 deliver me from those who work evil,
and save me from bloodthirsty men.
3 For behold, they lie in wait for my life;
fierce men sstir up strife against me.
For no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord,
4 for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.
tAwake, come to meet me, and see!
5 You, Lord God of hosts, are God of Israel.
uRouse yourself to punish all the nations;
spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah
6 Each evening they come back,
howling like dogs
and prowling about the city.
7 There they are, bellowing with their mouths
with swords in their lips—
for “Who,” they think,7 “will hear us?”
8 But you, O Lord, vlaugh at them;
you hold all the nations in derision.
9 O my Strength, I will watch for you,
for you, O God, are my fortress.
10 My God in his steadfast love8 will wmeet me;
God will let me xlook in triumph on my enemies.
11 Kill them not, lest my people forget;
make them totter9 by your power and bring them down,
O Lord, our yshield!
12 For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,
let them be trapped in their pride.
For the cursing and lies that they utter,
13 consume them in wrath;
consume them till they are no more,
zthat they may know that God rules over Jacob
to the ends of the earth. Selah
14 Each evening they come back,
howling like dogs
and prowling about the city.
15 They wander about for food
and growl if they do not get their fill.
16 But I will sing of your strength;
I will sing aloud of your steadfast love ain the morning.
For you have been to me a fortress
and a refuge in the day of my distress.
17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,
for you, O God, are my fortress,
the God who shows me steadfast love.
Abraham Justified by Faith
1 lWhat then shall we say was gained by Abraham, mour forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to nboast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? o“Abraham believed God, and it was pcounted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now qto the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but rbelieves in1 him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 s“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not tcount his sin.”
9 Is this ublessing then only for the circumcised, vor also for the uncircumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10 How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received wthe sign of circumcision as a seal of the xrighteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12 and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.
The Promise Realized Through Faith
13 For the ypromise to Abraham and his offspring zthat he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 aFor if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but bwhere there is no law cthere is no transgression.
16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to dthe one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, e“I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God fin whom he believed, who ggives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, h“So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith iwhen he considered his own body, which was jas good as dead (since he was about ka hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness2 of Sarah’s womb. 20 No lunbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was m“counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but nfor ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in ohim who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up pfor our trespasses and qraised for our rjustification.
