The wicked [those who live in disobedience to God’s law] are not so,
But they are like the chaff [worthless and without substance] which the wind blows away.

The kings of the earth take their stand;
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and His Anointed (the Davidic King, the Messiah, the Christ), saying,

O Lord, how my enemies have increased!
Many are rising up against me.

You have put joy in my heart,
More than [others know] when their wheat and new wine have yielded abundantly.

For there is nothing trustworthy or reliable or truthful in what they say;
Their heart is destruction [just a treacherous chasm, a yawning gulf of lies].
Their throat is an open grave;
They [glibly] flatter with their [silken] tongue.

Hold them guilty, O God;
Let them fall by their own designs and councils!
Cast them out because of the abundance of their transgressions,
For they are mutinous and have rebelled against You.

When my enemies turn back,
They stumble and perish before You.

And those who know Your name [who have experienced Your precious mercy] will put their confident trust in You,
For You, O Lord, have not abandoned those who seek You.

The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made;
In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught.

In pride and arrogance the wicked hotly pursue and persecute the afflicted;
Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.

For look, the wicked are bending the bow;
They take aim with their arrow on the string
To shoot [by stealth] in darkness at the upright in heart.

They speak deceitful and worthless words to one another;
With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

The [spiritually ignorant] fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they have committed repulsive and unspeakable deeds;
There is no one who does good.

They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.

Have all the workers of wickedness and injustice no knowledge,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call upon the Lord?

There they tremble with great fear,
For God is with the [consistently] righteous generation.

As for the saints (godly people) who are in the land,
They are the majestic and the noble and the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.

They have closed their unfeeling heart [to kindness and compassion];
With their mouths they speak proudly and make presumptuous claims.

They track us down and have now surrounded us in our steps;
They set their eyes to force us to the ground,

From men with Your hand, O Lord,
From men of the world [these moths of the night] whose portion [of enjoyment] is in this life—idle and vain,
And whose belly You fill with Your treasure;
They are satisfied with children,
And they leave what they have left [of wealth] to their children.

Then the earth shook and quaked,
The foundations of the mountains trembled;
They were shaken because He was indignant and angry.

He rescued me from my strong enemy,
And from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
But the Lord was my support.

I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
And I did not turn back until they were consumed.

I shattered them so that they were not able to rise;
They fell [wounded] under my feet.

They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
Even to the Lord [they cried], but He did not answer them.

As soon as they hear me, they respond and obey me;
Foreigners feign obedience to me.

They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

They have bowed down and fallen,
But we have risen and stood upright.

For they planned evil against You;
They devised a [malevolent] plot
And they will not succeed.

In You our fathers trusted [leaned on, relied on, and were confident];
They trusted and You rescued them.

They cried out to You and were delivered;
They trusted in You and were not disappointed or ashamed.

All who see me laugh at me and mock me;
They [insultingly] open their lips, they shake their head, saying,

They open wide their mouths against me,
Like a ravening and a roaring lion.

For [a pack of] dogs have surrounded me;
A gang of evildoers has encircled me,
They pierced my hands and my feet.

They divide my clothing among them
And cast lots for my garment.

The afflicted will eat and be satisfied;
Those who [diligently] seek Him and require Him [as their greatest need] will praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!

All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship;
All those who go down to the dust (the dead) will bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.

Posterity will serve Him;
They will tell of the Lord to the next generation.

They will come and declare His righteousness
To a people yet to be born—that He has done it [and that it is finished].

Even though I walk through the [sunless] valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me.

The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness of it,
The world, and those who dwell in it.

Remember, O Lord, Your [tender] compassion and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they have been from of old.

All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and goodness and truth and faithfulness
To those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.

For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my wickedness and my guilt, for they are great.

The secret [of the wise counsel] of the Lord is for those who fear Him,
And He will let them know His covenant and reveal to them [through His word] its [deep, inner] meaning.

Look upon my enemies, for they are many;
They hate me with cruel and violent hatred.

When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh,
My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.

Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
For false witnesses have come against me;
They breathe out violence.

Repay them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices;
Repay them according to the deeds of their hands;
Repay them what they deserve.

Because they have no regard for the works of the Lord
Nor the deeds of His hands,
He will tear them down and not rebuild them.

You will draw me out of the net that they have secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength and my stronghold.

For I have heard the slander and whispering of many,
Terror is on every side;
While they schemed together against me,
They plotted to take away my life.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You [for forgiveness] in a time when You [are near and] may be found;
Surely when the great waters [of trial and distressing times] overflow they will not reach [the spirit in] him.

Do not be like the horse or like the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bridle and rein to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.

They looked to Him and were radiant;
Their faces will never blush in shame or confusion.

The young lions lack [food] and grow hungry,
But they who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing.

Evil will cause the death of the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous will be held guilty and will be condemned.

For without cause they hid their net for me;
Without cause they dug a pit [of destruction] for my life.

Malicious witnesses rise up;
They ask me of things that I do not know.

They repay me evil for good,
To the sorrow of my soul.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth (mourning garment);
I humbled my soul with fasting,
And I prayed with my head bowed on my chest.

But in my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered together [against me];
The slanderers whom I did not know gathered against me;
They slandered and reviled me without ceasing.

Like godless jesters at a feast,
They gnashed at me with their teeth [in malice].

For they do not speak peace,
But they devise deceitful words [half-truths and lies] against those who are quiet in the land.

They open their mouths wide against me;
They say, “Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it!”

They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;
And You allow them to drink from the river of Your delights.

There those who [are perverse and] do evil have fallen;
They have been thrust down and cannot rise.

For they will wither quickly like the grass,
And fade like the green herb.

For yet a little while and the wicked one will be gone [forever];
Though you look carefully where he used to be, he will not be [found].

The wicked plots against the righteous
And gnashes at him with his teeth.

They will not be ashamed in the time of evil,
And in the days of famine they will have plenty and be satisfied.

But the wicked (ungodly) will perish,
And the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures and like the fat of lambs [that is consumed in smoke],
They vanish—like smoke they vanish away.

The wicked borrows and does not pay back,
But the righteous is gracious and kind and gives.

For those blessed by God will [at last] inherit the land,
But those cursed by Him will be cut off.

All day long he is gracious and lends,
And his descendants are a blessing.

For the Lord delights in justice
And does not abandon His saints (faithful ones);
They are preserved forever,
But the descendants of the wicked will [in time] be cut off.

The Lord will not leave him in his hand
Or let him be condemned when he is judged.

As for transgressors, they will be completely destroyed;
The future of the wicked will be cut off.

The Lord helps them and rescues them;
He rescues them from the wicked and saves them,
Because they take refuge in Him.

For my iniquities have gone over my head [like the waves of a flood];
As a heavy burden they weigh too much for me.

Those who seek my life lay snares for me,
And those who seek to injure me threaten mischievous things and destruction;
They devise treachery all the day long.

They repay evil for good, they attack and try to kill me,
Because I follow what is good.

Many, O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us;
There is none to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of your wonders,
They would be too many to count.

For innumerable evils have encompassed me;
My sins have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see.
They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my heart has failed me.

All who hate me whisper together about me;
Against me they devise my hurt [imagining the worst for me], saying,

“A wicked thing is poured out upon him and holds him;
And when he lies down, he will not rise up again.”

As a crushing of my bones [with a sword], my adversaries taunt me,
While they say continually to me, “Where is your God?”

For our fathers did not possess the land [of Canaan] by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
Because You favored and delighted in them.

You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.

With gladness and rejoicing will they be led;
They will enter into the King’s palace.

For, lo, the kings assembled themselves,
They [came and] passed by together.

They saw it, then they were amazed;
They were stricken with terror, they fled in alarm.

Their inward thought is that their houses will continue forever,
And their dwelling places to all generations;
They have named their lands after their own names [ignoring God].

Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead);
Death will be their shepherd;
And the upright shall rule over them in the morning,
And their form and beauty shall be for Sheol to consume,
So that they have no dwelling [on earth].

The righteous will see it and fear,
And will [scoffingly] laugh, saying,

The [empty-headed] fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt and evil, and have committed repulsive injustice;
There is no one who does good.

Every one of them has turned aside and fallen away;
Together they have become filthy and corrupt;
There is no one who does good, no, not even one.

Have workers of wickedness no knowledge or no understanding?
They eat up My people as though they ate bread
And have not called upon God.

There they were, in great terror and dread, where there had been no terror or dread;
For God scattered the bones of him who besieged you;
You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.