1  Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, O my soul!

2  I will praise the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3  ^vPut not your trust in princes,

in a son of man, ^win whom there is no salvation.

4  When his breath departs, he ^xreturns to the earth;

on that very day his plans perish.

5  ^yBlessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose ^zhope is in the Lord his God,

6  who made heaven and earth,

the sea, and all that is in them,

who keeps faith forever;

7  who executes ^ajustice for the oppressed,

who ^bgives food to the hungry.

^cThe Lord ^dsets the prisoners free;

8  the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

The Lord ^elifts up those who are bowed down;

the Lord loves the righteous.

9  ^fThe Lord watches over the sojourners;

he upholds the widow and the fatherless,

but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10  The Lord will reign ^gforever,

your God, O Zion, to all generations.

Praise the Lord!

1  Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens!¹

2  Praise him for his mighty deeds;

praise him according to his excellent greatness!

3  Praise him with ^ytrumpet sound;

praise him with ^zlute and ^aharp!

4  Praise him with ^btambourine and ^cdance;

praise him with strings and pipe!

5  Praise him with sounding ^dcymbals;

praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

6  ^eLet everything that has breath praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

12  Who has ^pmeasured the waters in the hollow of his hand

and marked off the heavens with a span,

enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure

and weighed the mountains in scales

and the hills in a balance?

13  ^qWho has measured¹ the Spirit of the Lord,

or what man shows him his counsel?

14  Whom did he consult,

and who made him understand?

Who taught him the path of justice,

and taught him knowledge,

and showed him the way of understanding?

15  Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,

and are accounted as the dust on the scales;

behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

16  Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,

nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

17  All the nations are ^ras nothing before him,

they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

18  ^sTo whom then will you liken God,

or what likeness compare with him?

19  An idol! A ^tcraftsman casts it,

and a ^ugoldsmith overlays it with gold

and casts for it silver chains.

20  He who is too impoverished for an offering

chooses wood² that will not rot;

he seeks out a skillful craftsman

to set up an idol that will ^vnot move.

21  Do you not know? Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22  It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

who ^wstretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them ^xlike a tent to dwell in;

23  who brings princes to nothing,

and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

24  Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,

scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,

when he blows on them, and they wither,

and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

25  To whom then will you compare me,

that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

26  Lift up your eyes on high and see:

who created these?

^yHe who brings out their host by number,

calling them all by name;

by the greatness of his might

and because he is strong in power,

not one is missing.

27  Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

^z“My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my right is disregarded by my God”?

28  Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

^ahis understanding is unsearchable.

29  He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

30  Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

31  but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings ^blike eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.