Let my lips speak praise [with thanksgiving],
For You teach me Your statutes.

I am for peace, but when I speak,
They are for war.

I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side
When men rose up against us,

Then they would have [quickly] swallowed us alive,
When their wrath was kindled against us;

When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion (Jerusalem),
We were like those who dream [it seemed so unreal].

How blessed [happy and fortunate] is the man whose quiver is filled with them;
They will not be ashamed
When they speak with their enemies [in gatherings] at the [city] gate.

By the rivers of Babylon,
There we [captives] sat down and wept,
When we remembered Zion [the city God imprinted on our hearts].

On the day I called, You answered me;
And You made me bold and confident with [renewed] strength in my life.

My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was being formed in secret,
And intricately and skillfully formed [as if embroidered with many colors] in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were appointed for me,
When as yet there was not one of them [even taking shape].

If I could count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.

Lord, I call upon You; hurry to me.
Listen to my voice when I call to You.

Their [wicked, godless] judges are thrown down the sides of the rocky cliff,
And they [who followed them] will hear my words, for they are pleasant (just).

As when the one plows and breaks open the ground [and the soil scatters behind him],
Our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol [by the injustices of the wicked].

When my spirit was overwhelmed and weak within me [wrapped in darkness],
You knew my path.
In the way where I walk
They have hidden a trap for me.

Let our sons in their youth be like plants full grown,
And our daughters like corner pillars fashioned for a palace;

Let our barns be full, supplying every kind of produce,
And our flocks bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;

Let our cattle bear
Without mishap and without loss,
And let there be no outcry in our streets!

When his spirit leaves him, he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts and plans perish.