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].

Be not afraid when [an ungodly] man becomes rich,
When the wealth and glory of his house are increased;

“I do not reprove you for your sacrifices;
Your burnt offerings are continually before Me.

“For every beast of the forest is Mine,
And the cattle on a thousand hills.

“I know every bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is Mine.

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
For the world and all it contains are Mine.

Against You, You only, have I sinned
And done that which is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak [Your sentence]
And faultless in Your judgment.

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.

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.

For strangers have risen against me
And violent men have sought my life;
They have not set God before them. Selah.

Day and night they go around her walls;
Wickedness and mischief are in her midst.

Destruction is within her;
Oppression and deceit do not depart from her streets and market places.

Let death come deceitfully upon them;
Let them go down alive to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
For evil [of every kind] is in their dwelling and in their hearts, in their midst.

My enemies have trampled upon me all day long,
For they are many who fight proudly against me.

All day long they twist my words and say hurtful things;
All their thoughts are against me for evil.

You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not recorded in Your book?

Your vows are binding upon me, O God;
I will give thank offerings to You.

Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious and merciful to me,
For my soul finds shelter and safety in You,
And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge and be confidently secure
Until destruction passes by.

My life is among lions;
I must lie among those who breathe out fire—
The sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
And their tongue a sharp sword.

For Your faithfulness and lovingkindness are great, reaching to the heavens,
And Your truth to the clouds.

The wicked are estranged from the womb;
These go astray from birth, speaking lies [even twisted partial truths].

Their poison is like the venom of a serpent;
They are like the deaf horned viper that stops up its ear,

Before your cooking pots can feel the fire of thorns [burning under them as fuel],
He will sweep them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning ones alike.

Look! They lie in wait for my life;
Fierce and powerful men [are uniting together to] launch an attack against me,
Not for my wrongdoing nor for any sin of mine, O Lord.

Look how they belch out [insults] with their mouths;
Swords [of sarcasm, ridicule, slander, and lies] are in their lips,
For they say, “Who hears us?”

They wander around for food [to devour]
And growl all night if they are not satisfied.

For God alone my soul waits in silence and quietly submits to Him,
For my hope is from Him.

Men of low degree are only a breath (emptiness), and men of [high] rank are a lie (delusion).
In the balances they go up [because they have no measurable weight or value];
They are together lighter than a breath.

O God, You are my God; with deepest longing I will seek You;
My soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for You, my flesh longs and sighs for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

By awesome and wondrous things You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust and hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;

So they who dwell at the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs [the evidence of Your presence].
You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.

The meadows are clothed with flocks
And the valleys are covered with grain;
They shout for joy and they sing.

Say to God, “How awesome and fearfully glorious are Your works!
Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will pretend to be obedient to You.

The Lord gives the command [to take Canaan];
The women who proclaim the good news are a great host (army);

When you lie down [to rest] among the sheepfolds,
You [Israel] are like the wings of a dove [of victory] overlaid with silver,
Its feathers glistening with gold [trophies taken from the enemy].

The chariots of God are myriads, thousands upon thousands;
The Lord is among them as He was at Sinai, in holiness.

The singers go in front, the players of instruments last;
Between them the maidens playing on tambourines.

Bless God in the congregations, [give thanks, gratefully praise Him],
The Lord, you who are from [Jacob] the fountain of Israel.

Ascribe strength to God;
His majesty is over Israel
And His strength is in the skies.

O God, You are awesome and profoundly majestic from Your sanctuary;
The God of Israel gives strength and power to His people.
Blessed be God!

Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head;
Those who would destroy me are powerful, being my enemies wrongfully;
I am forced to restore what I did not steal.

O God, You know my folly;
My wrongs are not hidden from You.

You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor [how I am insulted];
My adversaries are all before You [each one fully known].

May their table [with all its abundance and luxury] become a snare [to them];
And when they are in peace [secure at their sacrificial feasts], may it become a trap.

But I am afflicted and needy;
Come quickly to me, O God!
You are my help and my rescuer;
O Lord, do not delay.

Be to me a rock of refuge and a sheltering stronghold to which I may continually come;
You have given the commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.

For You are my hope;
O Lord God, You are my trust and the source of my confidence from my youth.

Upon You have I relied and been sustained from my birth;
You are He who took me from my mother’s womb and You have been my benefactor from that day.
My praise is continually of You.

I am as a wonder to many,
For You are my strong refuge.

Let those who attack my life be ashamed and consumed;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek to injure me.

And even when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not abandon me,
Until I declare Your [mighty] strength to this generation,
Your power to all who are to come.

My tongue also will speak of Your righteousness all day long;
For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek my injury.

The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.

Truly God is good to Israel,
To those who are pure in heart.

They are not in trouble as other men,
Nor are they plagued like mankind.

Therefore his people return to this place,
And waters of abundance [offered by the irreverent] are [blindly] drunk by them.

Behold, these are the ungodly,
Who always prosper and are at ease [in the world]; they have increased in wealth.

How they are destroyed in a moment!
They are completely swept away by sudden terrors!

For behold, those who are far from You will perish;
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful and have abandoned You.

Consider the covenant [You made with Abraham],
For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

You are glorious and resplendent,
More majestic than the mountains of prey.

The stouthearted have been stripped of their spoil,
They have slept the sleep [of death];
And none of the warriors could use his hands.

At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
Both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep [of death].

You, even You, are to be feared [with the submissive wonder of reverence];
Who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry?

Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them;
Let all who are around Him bring gifts to Him who is to be feared [with awe-inspired reverence].

You are the [awesome] God who works [powerful] wonders;
You have demonstrated Your power among the people.

We have become an object of taunting to our neighbors [because of our humiliation],
A derision and mockery to those who encircle us.

O do not remember against us the sins and guilt of our forefathers.
Let Your compassion and mercy come quickly to meet us,
For we have been brought very low.

Let the groaning and sighing of the prisoner come before You;
According to the greatness of Your power keep safe those who are doomed to die.

The rulers do not know nor do they understand;
They walk on in the darkness [of complacent satisfaction];
All the foundations of the earth [the fundamental principles of the administration of justice] are shaken.

I said, “You are gods;
Indeed, all of you are sons of the Most High.

For behold, Your enemies are in tumult,
And those who hate You have raised their heads [in hatred of You].

That they may know that You alone, whose name is the Lord,
Are the Most High over all the earth.

How lovely are Your dwelling places,
O Lord of hosts!

Blessed and greatly favored are those who dwell in Your house and Your presence;
They will be singing Your praises all the day long. Selah.

Blessed and greatly favored is the man whose strength is in You,
In whose heart are the highways to Zion.

I will hear [with expectant hope] what God the Lord will say,
For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones—
But let them not turn again to folly.

For You, O Lord, are good, and ready to forgive [our sins, sending them away, completely letting them go forever and ever];
And abundant in lovingkindness and overflowing in mercy to all those who call upon You.

There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord,
Nor are there any works [of wonder and majesty] like Yours.

For You are great and do wondrous works!
You alone are God.

O God, arrogant and insolent men have risen up against me;
A band of violent men have sought my life,
And they have not set You before them.

But You, O Lord, are a God [who protects and is] merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.

Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of God [Jerusalem]. Selah.

The singers as well as the players of flutes will say,
“All my springs and sources of joy are in you [Jerusalem, city of God].”

Cast away [from the living] and abandoned among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in a [nameless] grave,
Whom You no longer remember,
And they are cut off from Your hand.

Will Your wonders be known in the darkness?
And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?

Lover and friend You have placed far from me;
My familiar friends are in darkness.

A God greatly feared and reverently worshiped in the council of the holy [angelic] ones,
And awesome above all those who are around Him?

The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;
The world and all that is in it, You have founded and established them.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;
Lovingkindness and truth go before You.

Blessed and happy are the people who know the joyful sound [of the trumpet’s blast]!
They walk, O Lord, in the light and favor of Your countenance!

In Your name they rejoice all the day,
And in Your righteousness they are exalted.

For You are the glory of their strength [their proud adornment],
And by Your favor our horn is exalted.

“He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father,
My God, and the rock of my salvation.’

O Lord, where are Your former lovingkindnesses [so abundant in the days of David and Solomon],
Which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?

Before the mountains were born
Or before You had given birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are [the eternal] God.

For a thousand years in Your sight
Are like yesterday when it is past,
Or as a watch in the night.

You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep [forgotten as soon as they are gone];
In the morning they are like grass which grows anew—

For we have been consumed by Your anger
And by Your wrath we have been terrified.

For all our days pass away in Your wrath;
We have finished our years like a whispered sigh.