1  I said, “I will ^wguard my ways,

that I ^xmay not sin with my tongue;

I will ^yguard my mouth with a muzzle,

so long as the wicked are in my presence.”

2  I was ^zmute and silent;

I held my peace to no avail,

and my distress grew worse.

3  My ^aheart became hot within me.

As I mused, the fire burned;

then I spoke with my tongue:

4  “O Lord, ^bmake me know my end

and what is the measure of my days;

let me know how fleeting I am!

5  Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,

and ^cmy lifetime is as nothing before you.

Surely ^dall mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah

6  Surely a man ^egoes about as a shadow!

Surely for nothing¹ they are in turmoil;

man ^fheaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

7  “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?

^gMy hope is in you.

8  Deliver me from all my transgressions.

^hDo not make me the scorn of the fool!

9  ⁱI am mute; I do not open my mouth,

^jfor it is you who have done it.

10  ^kRemove your stroke from me;

I am spent by the hostility of your hand.

11  When you discipline a man

with ^lrebukes for sin,

you ^mconsume like a ⁿmoth what is dear to him;

^osurely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah

12  ^p“Hear my prayer, O Lord,

and give ear to my cry;

hold not your peace at my tears!

For I am ^qa sojourner with you,

^qa guest, like all my fathers.

13  ^rLook away from me, that I may smile again,

^sbefore I depart and ^tam no more!”

1  I ^uwaited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and ^vheard my cry.

2  He drew me up from ^wthe pit of destruction,

out of ^xthe miry bog,

and ^yset my feet upon a rock,

^zmaking my steps secure.

3  He put ^aa new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will ^bsee and fear,

and put their trust in the Lord.

4  Blessed is the man who ^cmakes

the Lord his trust,

who does not turn to the proud,

to those who ^dgo astray after a lie!

5  You have multiplied, O Lord my God,

your ^ewondrous deeds and your ^fthoughts toward us;

none can compare with you!

I will proclaim and tell of them,

yet they are ^gmore than can be told.

6  ^hIn sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,

but you have given me an open ⁱear.²

Burnt offering and sin offering

you have not required.

7  Then I said, “Behold, I have come;

in the scroll of the book it is written ^jof me:

8  ^kI delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is ^lwithin my heart.”

9  I have told the glad news of deliverance³

in ^mthe great congregation;

behold, I have not ⁿrestrained my lips,

^oas you know, O Lord.

10  I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness

from the great congregation.

11  As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain

your mercy from me;

your ^psteadfast love and your faithfulness will

ever preserve me!

12  For evils have ^qencompassed me

beyond number;

my ^riniquities have overtaken me,

and I cannot ^ssee;

they are ^tmore than the hairs of my head;

my heart ^ufails me.

13  ^vBe pleased, O Lord, to ^wdeliver me!

O Lord, ^xmake haste to help me!

14  ^yLet those be put to shame and disappointed altogether

who seek to snatch away my life;

let those be ^zturned back and brought to dishonor

who delight in my hurt!

15  Let those be appalled because of their shame

who ^asay to me, “Aha, Aha!”

16  But may all who seek you

rejoice and be glad in you;

may those who love your salvation

^bsay continually, “Great is the Lord!”

17  As for me, I am ^cpoor and needy,

but ^dthe Lord takes thought for me.

You are my help and my deliverer;

do not delay, O my God!

1  ^eBlessed is the one who considers the poor!⁴

^fIn the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;

2  the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;

he is called blessed in the land;

you ^gdo not give him up to the will of his enemies.

3  The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;

in his illness you restore him to full health.⁵

4  As for me, I said, “O Lord, ^hbe gracious to me;

ⁱheal me,⁶ for I have sinned against you!”

5  My enemies say of me in malice,

“When will he die, and his name perish?”

6  And when one comes to see me, ^jhe utters empty words,

while his heart gathers iniquity;

when he goes out, he tells it abroad.

7  All who hate me whisper together about me;

they imagine the worst for me.⁷

8  They say, “A deadly thing is poured out⁸ on him;

he will not rise again from where he lies.”

9  Even my ^kclose friend in whom I trusted,

who ^late my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

10  But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,

and raise me up, that I may repay them!

11  By this I know that ^myou delight in me:

my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.

12  But ⁿyou have upheld me because of ^omy integrity,

and ^pset me in your presence ^qforever.

13  ^rBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

from everlasting to everlasting!

Amen and Amen.

1  ^qThe fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;

there is none who does good.

2  God looks down from heaven

on the children of man

to see if there are any who understand,²

who seek after God.

3  They have all fallen away;

together they have become corrupt;

there is none who does good,

not even one.

4  Have those who work evil no knowledge,

who eat up my people as they eat bread,

and do not call upon God?

5  There they are, in great terror,

^rwhere there is no terror!

For God ^sscatters the bones of him who encamps against you;

you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

6  Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

When God restores the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

1  ^gGive ear to my prayer, O God,

and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!

2  Attend to me, and answer me;

I am restless ^hin my complaint and I ⁱmoan,

3  because of the noise of the enemy,

because of the oppression of the wicked.

For they ^jdrop trouble upon me,

and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

4  My heart is in anguish within me;

^kthe terrors of death have fallen upon me.

5  Fear and trembling come upon me,

and ^lhorror ^moverwhelms me.

6  And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest;

7  ⁿyes, I would wander far away;

I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah

8  I would hurry to find a shelter

from ^othe raging wind and tempest.”

9  Destroy, O Lord, ^pdivide their tongues;

for I see ^qviolence and strife in the city.

10  Day and night they go around it

on its walls,

and ^riniquity and trouble are within it;

11  ruin is in its midst;

^soppression and fraud

do not depart from its marketplace.

12  For it is not an enemy who taunts me—

then I could bear it;

it is not an adversary who ^tdeals insolently with me—

then I could hide from him.

13  ^uBut it is you, a man, my equal,

my companion, my familiar friend.

14  We used to take sweet counsel together;

within God’s house we walked in ^vthe throng.

15  Let death steal over them;

let them go down to Sheol ^walive;

for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.

16  But I call to God,

and the Lord will save me.

17  ^xEvening and ^ymorning and at ^znoon

I ^autter my complaint and moan,

and he hears my voice.

18  He redeems my soul in safety

from the battle that I wage,

for ^bmany are arrayed against me.

19  God will give ear and humble them,

he who is ^centhroned from of old, Selah

because they do not ^dchange

and do not fear God.

20  My companion^{2 e}stretched out his hand against his friends;

he violated his covenant.

21  His ^fspeech was ^gsmooth as butter,

yet war was in his heart;

his words were softer than oil,

yet they were ^hdrawn swords.

22  ⁱCast your burden on the Lord,

and he will sustain you;

^jhe will never permit

the righteous to be moved.

23  But you, O God, ^kwill cast them down

into ^lthe pit of destruction;

men of ^mblood and treachery

shall not ⁿlive out half their days.

But I will ^otrust in you.

1  Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?²

Do you judge the children of man uprightly?

2  No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;

your hands ^jdeal out violence on earth.

3  The wicked are ^kestranged from the womb;

they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

4  ^lThey have venom like the venom of a serpent,

like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

5  so that it ^mdoes not hear the voice of charmers

or of the cunning enchanter.

6  O God, ⁿbreak the teeth in their mouths;

tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!

7  Let them ^ovanish like water that runs away;

when he ^paims his arrows, let them be blunted.

8  Let them be like the snail ^othat dissolves into slime,

like ^qthe stillborn child who never sees the sun.

9  Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of ^rthorns,

whether green or ablaze, may he ^ssweep them away!³

10  ^tThe righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;

he will ^ubathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11  Mankind will say, “Surely there is ^va reward for the righteous;

surely there is a God who ^wjudges on earth.”