86  Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,

^sfor I am poor and needy.

2  Preserve my life, for I am godly;

save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.

3  Be gracious to me, O Lord,

for to you do I cry ^tall the day.

4  Gladden the soul of your servant,

for ^uto you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

5  For you, O Lord, are good and ^vforgiving,

^wabounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

6  Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;

listen to my plea for grace.

7  In the day of my trouble I call upon you,

for ^xyou answer me.

8  ^yThere is none like you among the gods, O Lord,

nor are there any works like yours.

9  ^zAll the nations you have made shall come

and worship before you, O Lord,

and shall glorify your name.

10  For ^ayou are great and do ^bwondrous things;

^cyou alone are God.

11  ^dTeach me your way, O Lord,

that I may walk ^ein your truth;

unite my heart to fear your name.

12  I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,

and I will glorify your name forever.

13  For great is your steadfast love toward me;

you have ^fdelivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

14  O God, ^ginsolent men have risen up against me;

a band of ruthless men seeks my life,

and they do not set you before them.

15  But you, O Lord, are a God ^hmerciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

16  ⁱTurn to me and be gracious to me;

^jgive your strength to ^kyour servant,

and save the son of your maidservant.

17  Show me a sign of your favor,

that those who hate me may see and ^lbe put to shame

because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

87  On the ^mholy mount stands the city he ⁿfounded;

2  the Lord ^oloves the gates of Zion

more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.

3  Glorious things of you are spoken,

O ^pcity of God. Selah

4  Among those who know me I mention ^qRahab and Babylon;

behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush¹—

“This one was born there,” they say.

5  And of Zion it shall be said,

“This one and that one were born in her”;

for the Most High himself will ^restablish her.

6  The Lord records as he registers the peoples,

“This one was born there.” Selah

7  Singers and dancers alike say,

“All my springs are in you.”

88  O Lord, God of my salvation,

I ^tcry out ^uday and night before you.

2  Let my prayer come before you;

incline your ear to my cry!

3  For my soul is full of troubles,

and my life draws near to Sheol.

4  I am counted among those who go down to the pit;

I am a man who has no strength,

5  like one set loose among the dead,

^vlike the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom you remember no more,

for they are cut off from your hand.

6  You have put me in the depths of the pit,

in the regions dark and deep.

7  Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah

8  You have caused my ^wcompanions to shun me;

you have made me a horror² to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

9  ^xmy eye grows dim through sorrow.

^yEvery day I call upon you, O Lord;

I spread out my hands to you.

10  Do you work wonders for the dead?

^zDo the departed rise up to praise you? Selah

11  Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

12  Are your wonders known in the darkness,

or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

13  But I, O Lord, cry to you;

^ain the morning my prayer comes before you.

14  O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?

Why do you hide your face from me?

15  Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.³

16  Your wrath has swept over me;

your dreadful assaults destroy me.

17  They surround me like a flood all day long;

they close in on me together.

18  You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;

my companions have become darkness.⁴

89  I will sing of the ^csteadfast love of the Lord forever;

with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.

2  For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;

^din the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”

3  You have said, ^e“I have made a covenant with my chosen one;

I have ^fsworn to David my servant:

4  ‘I will establish your offspring ^gforever,

and build your throne for all generations.’” Selah

5  Let the ^hheavens praise your wonders, O Lord,

your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!

6  For ⁱwho in the skies can be compared to the Lord?

Who among the heavenly beings² is like the Lord,

7  a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,

and awesome above all who are around him?

8  O Lord God of hosts,

who is mighty as you are, O Lord,

with your faithfulness all around you?

9  ^jYou rule the raging of the sea;

when its waves rise, you still them.

10  You crushed ^kRahab like a carcass;

you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

11  ^lThe heavens are yours; ^mthe earth also is yours;

the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.

12  The north and the south, you have created them;

Tabor and Hermon ⁿjoyously praise your name.

13  You have a mighty ^oarm;

strong is your hand, high your right hand.

14  ^pRighteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;

steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

15  Blessed are the people who know the festal ^qshout,

who walk, O Lord, in the ^rlight of your face,

16  who exult in your name all the day

and in your righteousness are exalted.

17  For you are the glory of their strength;

by your favor our horn is exalted.

18  For our shield belongs to the Lord,

our king to the Holy One of Israel.

19  Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one,³ and said:

“I have granted help to one who is mighty;

I have exalted one chosen from the people.

20  ^sI have found David, my servant;

with my holy oil I have ^tanointed him,

21  so that my hand shall be established with him;

my arm also shall strengthen him.

22  The enemy shall not outwit him;

^uthe wicked shall not humble him.

23  I will crush his foes before him

and strike down those who hate him.

24  My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him,

and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

25  ^vI will set his hand on the sea

and his right hand on the rivers.

26  He shall cry to me, ‘You are my ^wFather,

my God, and the ^xRock of my salvation.’

27  And I will make him the ^yfirstborn,

the highest of the kings of the earth.

28  ^zMy steadfast love I will keep for him forever,

and my ^acovenant will stand firm⁴ for him.

29  I will establish his offspring forever

and his throne as the days of the heavens.

30  ^bIf his children forsake my law

and do not walk according to my rules,⁵

31  if they violate my statutes

and do not keep my commandments,

32  then I will punish their transgression with the rod

and their iniquity with stripes,

33  but ^cI will not remove from him my steadfast love

or be false to my faithfulness.

34  I will not violate my covenant

or ^dalter the word that went forth from my lips.

35  Once for all I have sworn ^eby my holiness;

I will not ^flie to David.

36  His offspring shall endure forever,

his throne ^gas long as the sun before me.

37  Like the moon it shall be established forever,

a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah

38  But now you have cast off and rejected;

you are full of wrath against your anointed.

39  You have renounced the covenant with your servant;

you have defiled his crown in the dust.

40  You have ^hbreached all his walls;

you have laid his strongholds in ruins.

41  All who pass by plunder him;

he has become the scorn of his neighbors.

42  You have exalted the right hand of his foes;

you have ⁱmade all his enemies rejoice.

43  You have also turned back the edge of his sword,

and you have not made him stand in battle.

44  You have made his splendor to cease

and cast his throne to the ground.

45  You have cut short the days of his youth;

you have covered him with shame. Selah

46  ^jHow long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?

How long will your wrath burn like fire?

47  ^kRemember how short my time is!

For what vanity you have created all the children of man!

48  What man can live and never see death?

Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

49  Lord, where is your ^lsteadfast love of old,

which by your faithfulness you swore to David?

50  ^mRemember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,

and how I bear in my heart the insults⁶ of all the many nations,

51  with which your enemies mock, O Lord,

with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.

52  ⁿBlessed be the Lord forever!

^oAmen and Amen.

90  Lord, you have been ^pour dwelling place¹

in all generations.

2  ^qBefore the mountains were brought forth,

or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

^rfrom everlasting to everlasting you are God.

3  You ^sreturn man to dust

and say, “Return, O children of man!”²

4  For ^ta thousand years in your sight

are but as yesterday when it is past,

or as a watch in the night.

5  You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,

like grass that is renewed in the morning:

6  in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;

in the evening it fades and withers.

7  For we are brought to an end by your anger;

by your wrath we are dismayed.

8  You have set our iniquities before you,

our ^usecret sins in the light of your presence.

9  For all our days pass away under your wrath;

we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

10  The years of our life are seventy,

or even by reason of strength eighty;

^vyet their span³ is but toil and trouble;

^wthey are soon gone, and we fly away.

11  Who considers the power of your anger,

and your wrath according to the fear of you?

12  So ^xteach us to number our days

that we may get a heart of wisdom.

13  Return, O Lord! How long?

^yHave pity on your servants!

14  Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,

that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

15  Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

and for as many years as we have seen evil.

16  Let your work be shown to your servants,

and your glorious power to their children.

17  Let the favor⁴ of the Lord our God be upon us,

and establish the work of our hands upon us;

yes, establish the work of our hands!