Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent
71 dIn you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
elet me never be put to shame!
2 fIn your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
3 Be to me a grock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
hyou are he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is icontinually of you.
7 I have been as a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
and with your glory all the day.
9 jDo not cast me off in the time of old age;
kforsake me not when my strength is spent.
10 For my enemies speak concerning me;
those who lwatch for my life mconsult together
11 and nsay, “God has forsaken him;
pursue and seize him,
for there is none to deliver him.”
12 O God, obe not far from me;
O my God, pmake haste to help me!
13 May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
with scorn and disgrace may they be qcovered
who seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for rtheir number is past my knowledge.
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So seven to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
19 tYour righteousness, O God,
ureaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, vwho is like you?
20 wYou who have made me see many troubles and calamities
will xrevive me again;
from the depths of the earth
you will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my greatness
and comfort me again.
22 yI will also praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy,
when I sing praises to you;
my soul also, which you have redeemed.
24 And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
who sought to do me hurt.
Give the King Your Justice
zOf Solomon.
72 Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
2 aMay he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!
5 May they fear you1 bwhile the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, cthroughout all generations!
6 May he be dlike rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth!
7 In his days may ethe righteous flourish,
and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
8 fMay he have dominion gfrom sea to sea,
and hfrom the River2 to the iends of the earth!
9 May desert tribes bow down before him,
and his enemies jlick the dust!
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
render him tribute;
may the kkings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts!
11 May all kings fall down before him,
all nations serve him!
12 lFor he mdelivers the needy when he calls,
the poor and him who has nno helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and osaves the lives of the needy.
14 From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
and pprecious is their blood in his sight.
15 Long may he live;
may qgold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all the day!
16 May there be abundance of grain in the land;
on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
rlike the grass of the field!
17 May his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
sMay people be blessed in him,
all nations call him blessed!
18 tBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does uwondrous things.
19 vBlessed be his glorious name forever;
may wthe whole earth be filled with his glory!
xAmen and Amen!
20 The yprayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
Book Three
God Is My Strength and Portion Forever
A Psalm of Asaph.
73 Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are zpure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly aslipped.
3 bFor I was cenvious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them das a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through efatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.1
11 And they say, f“How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands gin innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 hLike a dream when one iawakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was jlike a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your kcounsel,
and afterward you will lreceive me to glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength2 of my heart and mmy portion forever.
27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may ntell of all your works.
Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause
A oMaskil1 of Asaph.
74 O God, why do you pcast us off forever?
Why does your anger smoke against the qsheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you have rpurchased of old,
which you have redeemed to be the stribe of your heritage!
Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!
4 Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
they set up their own signs for signs.
5 They were like those who swing axes
in a forest of trees.2
6 And all its tcarved wood
they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7 They uset your sanctuary on fire;
they profaned the dwelling place of your name,
bringing it down to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, v“We will utterly subdue them”;
they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 wWe do not see our signs;
there is no longer any prophet,
and there is none among us who knows how long.
10 xHow long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you yhold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the fold of your garment3 and destroy them!
12 Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 zYou divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the sea monsters4 on the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of aLeviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 bYou split open springs and brooks;
cyou dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 dYours is the day, yours also the night;
eyou have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
17 fYou have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you have made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
and a foolish people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;
gdo not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 hHave regard for ithe covenant,
for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Arise, O God, defend your cause;
jremember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!
God Will Judge with Equity
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.
75 kWe give thanks to you, O God;
we give thanks, for your name is near.
We1 recount your wondrous deeds.
2 “At the set time that I appoint
I will judge with equity.
3 When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,
it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah
4 I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’
and lto the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;
5 do not lift up your horn on high,
or speak with haughty neck.’”
6 For not from the east or from the west
and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,
7 but it is mGod who executes judgment,
nputting down one and lifting up another.
8 For in the hand of the Lord there is a ocup
with foaming wine, well mixed,
and he pours out from it,
and all the wicked of the earth
shall pdrain it down to the dregs.
9 But I will declare it forever;
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10 All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,
but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.
