1  ^jHave mercy on me,¹ O God,

^kaccording to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

^lblot out my transgressions.

2  ^mWash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and ⁿcleanse me from my sin!

3  For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

4  ^oAgainst you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

^pso that you may be justified in your words

and blameless in your judgment.

5  Behold, I was ^qbrought forth in iniquity,

and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6  Behold, you delight in truth ^rin the inward being,

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

7  Purge me with ^shyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be ^twhiter than snow.

8  Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have broken ^urejoice.

9  Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities.

10  Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right² spirit within me.

11  ^vCast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

12  Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

13  Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will return to you.

14  Deliver me from ^wbloodguiltiness, O God,

O God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

15  O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise.

16  For ^xyou will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a ^ybroken and ^zcontrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18  ^aDo good to Zion in your good pleasure;

^bbuild up the walls of Jerusalem;

19  then will you delight in right sacrifices,

in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;

then bulls will be offered on your altar.

1  Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?

The steadfast love of God endures all the day.

2  Your tongue plots destruction,

like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.

3  You ^elove evil more than good,

and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah

4  You love all words that devour,

O deceitful tongue.

5  But God will break you down forever;

he will snatch and tear you from your tent;

he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah

6  The righteous shall see and fear,

and shall laugh at him, saying,

7  “See the man who would not make

God his refuge,

but ^ftrusted in the abundance of his riches

and sought refuge in his own destruction!”⁴

8  But I am like a ^ggreen olive tree

in the house of God.

I ^htrust in the steadfast love of God

forever and ever.

9  I will thank you forever,

because you have done it.

I will wait for your name, ⁱfor it is good,

in the presence of the godly.

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

They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;

^mthere is none who does good.

2  God looks down from heaven

on the children of man

to see if there are any who understand,⁶

who seek after God.

3  They have all fallen away;

together they have become corrupt;

ⁿthere is none who does good,

not even one.

4  ^oHave 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,

where there is no terror!

For God scatters 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 ^prestores the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

1  O God, save me by your name,

and vindicate me by your might.

2  O God, hear my prayer;

give ear to the words of my mouth.

3  For ^rstrangers⁸ have risen against me;

ruthless men seek my life;

they do not set God before themselves. Selah

4  Behold, God is my ^shelper;

the Lord is the upholder of my life.

5  ^tHe will return the evil to my enemies;

in your faithfulness ^uput an end to them.

6  With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;

^vI will give thanks to your name, O Lord, ^wfor it is good.

7  For he has ^xdelivered me from every trouble,

and my eye has ^ylooked in triumph on my enemies.

1  Give ear to my prayer, O God,

and ^zhide not yourself from my plea for mercy!

2  Attend to me, and answer me;

I am restless in my complaint and I moan,

3  because of the noise of the enemy,

because of the oppression of the wicked.

For they drop trouble upon me,

and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

4  My heart is in anguish within me;

the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

5  Fear and trembling come upon me,

and horror overwhelms me.

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

I would fly away and be at rest;

7  yes, I would wander far away;

I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah

8  I would hurry to find a shelter

from the raging wind and tempest.”

9  Destroy, O Lord, ^adivide their tongues;

for I see violence and strife in the city.

10  Day and night they go around it

on its walls,

and iniquity and trouble are within it;

11  ruin is in its midst;

oppression 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 deals insolently with me—

then I could hide from him.

13  But it is you, a man, my equal,

my companion, my ^bfamiliar friend.

14  We used to take sweet counsel together;

within God’s house we walked ^cin the throng.

15  Let death steal over them;

let them go down to Sheol ^dalive;

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

16  But I call to God,

and the Lord will save me.

17  Evening and ^emorning and at noon

I utter my complaint and moan,

and he hears my voice.

18  He redeems my soul in safety

from the battle that I wage,

for many are arrayed against me.

19  God will give ear and humble them,

he who is enthroned from of old, Selah

because they do not change

and do not fear God.

20  My companion¹⁰ stretched out his hand against his friends;

he violated his covenant.

21  His speech was smooth as butter,

^fyet war was in his heart;

^ghis words were softer than oil,

yet they were drawn swords.

22  ^hCast your burden on the Lord,

and he will sustain you;

ⁱhe will never permit

the righteous to be moved.

23  But you, O God, will cast them down

into the pit of destruction;

men of blood and treachery

shall not live out half their days.

But I will trust in you.

1  Be gracious to me, O God, for man ^ktramples on me;

all day long an attacker oppresses me;

2  my enemies trample on me all day long,

for many attack me proudly.

3  When I am afraid,

I put my ^ltrust in you.

4  In God, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; ^mI shall not be afraid.

What can flesh do to me?

5  All day long they injure my cause;¹²

all their thoughts are against me for evil.

6  They ⁿstir up strife, they lurk;

they ^owatch my steps,

as they have waited for my life.

7  For their crime will they escape?

In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!

8  You have kept count of my tossings;¹³

put my tears in your bottle.

Are they not in ^pyour book?

9  Then my enemies will turn back

in the day when I call.

This I know, that^{14 q}God is for me.

10  In God, whose word I praise,

in the Lord, whose word I praise,

11  in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

12  I must perform my vows to you, O God;

I will render thank offerings to you.

13  For you have ^rdelivered my soul from death,

yes, my feet from falling,

that I may ^swalk before God

in the ^tlight of life.

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!¹⁶

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!

1  Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?¹⁸

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!¹⁹

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.”

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,²¹ “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 love²² will ^wmeet me;

God will let me ^xlook in triumph on my enemies.

11  Kill them not, lest my people forget;

make them totter²³ 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.

1  O God, you have ^crejected us, broken our defenses;

you have been angry; oh, restore us.

2  You have made the land to quake; you have torn it open;

repair its breaches, for it totters.

3  ^dYou have made your people see hard things;

you have given us wine to drink that made us stagger.

4  You have set up a ^ebanner for those who fear you,

that they may flee to it from the bow.²⁵ Selah

5  ^fThat your beloved ones may be delivered,

give salvation by your right hand and answer us!

6  God has spoken in his holiness:²⁶

“With exultation I will divide up Shechem

and portion out the Vale of Succoth.

7  Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;

Ephraim is my helmet;

Judah is my ^gscepter.

8  Moab is my washbasin;

upon Edom I cast my shoe;

over Philistia I shout in triumph.”²⁷

9  Who will bring me to the fortified city?

Who will lead me to Edom?

10  Have you not ^hrejected us, O God?

ⁱYou do not go forth, O God, with our armies.

11  Oh, grant us help against the foe,

for vain is the salvation of man!

12  With God we shall do valiantly;

it is he who will tread down our foes.

1  Hear my cry, O God,

listen to my prayer;

2  from the end of the earth I call to you

^jwhen my heart is faint.

Lead me to the rock

that is higher than I,

3  for you have been my refuge,

a ^kstrong tower against the enemy.

4  Let me ^ldwell in your tent forever!

Let me take refuge ^munder the shelter of your wings! Selah

5  For you, O God, have heard my vows;

you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

6  Prolong the life of the king;

ⁿmay his years endure to all generations!

7  May he be enthroned forever before God;

appoint ^osteadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!

8  So will I ever sing praises to your name,

as I perform my vows day after day.

1  ^qFor God alone my soul waits ^rin silence;

from him comes my salvation.

2  He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

3  How long will all of you attack a man

to batter him,

like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

4  They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.

They take pleasure in falsehood.

They bless with their mouths,

^sbut inwardly they curse. Selah

5  ^tFor God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,

for my hope is from him.

6  He only is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress; I shall not be shaken.

7  On God rests my salvation and my glory;

my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

8  ^uTrust in him at all times, O people;

^vpour out your heart before him;

God is a refuge for us. Selah

9  Those of ^wlow estate are but a breath;

those of high estate are a delusion;

in the balances they go up;

they are together lighter than a breath.

10  Put no ^xtrust in extortion;

set no vain hopes on robbery;

^yif riches increase, set not your heart on them.

11  Once God has spoken;

twice have I heard this:

that power belongs to God,

12  and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.

For you will render to a man

^zaccording to his work.

1  O God, you are my God; ^bearnestly I seek you;

^cmy soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

2  So I have ^dlooked upon you in the sanctuary,

beholding your power and glory.

3  Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you.

4  So I will bless you as long as I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands.

5  My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,

and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,

6  when I remember you upon my bed,

and meditate on you in the ^ewatches of the night;

7  for you have been my help,

and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

8  My soul clings to you;

your right hand upholds me.

9  But those who seek to destroy my life

shall go down into the depths of the earth;

10  they shall be given over to the power of the sword;

they shall be a portion for jackals.

11  But ^fthe king shall rejoice in God;

all who swear by him shall exult,

for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

1  Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;

preserve my life from dread of the enemy.

2  Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,

from the throng of evildoers,

3  who whet their tongues like swords,

who ^gaim bitter words like arrows,

4  shooting ^hfrom ambush at the blameless,

shooting at him suddenly and without fear.

5  They hold fast to their evil purpose;

they talk of laying snares secretly,

thinking, “Who can see them?”

6  They search out injustice,

saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.”