Fill their faces with shame and disgrace,
That they may [persistently] seek Your name, O Lord.

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

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.

Passing through the Valley of Weeping (Baca), they make it a place of springs;
The early rain also covers it with blessings.

They go from strength to strength [increasing in victorious power];
Each of them appears before God in Zion.

All nations whom You have made shall come and kneel down in worship before You, O Lord,
And they shall glorify Your name.

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.

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.

They have surrounded me like flood waters all day long;
They have completely encompassed me.

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.

If they break My statutes
And do not keep My commandments,

With which Your enemies have taunted, O Lord,
With which they have mocked the footsteps of Your anointed.

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—

They will lift you up in their hands,
So that you do not [even] strike your foot against a stone.

That though the wicked sprout up like grass
And all evildoers flourish,
They will be destroyed forever.

The righteous will flourish like the date palm [long-lived, upright and useful];
They will grow like a cedar in Lebanon [majestic and stable].

Planted in the house of the Lord,
They will flourish in the courts of our God.

[Growing in grace] they will still thrive and bear fruit and prosper in old age;
They will flourish and be vital and fresh [rich in trust and love and contentment];

[They are living memorials] to declare that the Lord is upright and faithful [to His promises];
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

They pour out words, speaking arrogant things;
All who do evil boast proudly.

They crush Your people, O Lord,
And afflict and abuse Your heritage.

They kill the widow and the alien
And murder the fatherless.

Yet they say, “The Lord does not see,
Nor does the God of Jacob (Israel) notice it.”

The Lord knows the thoughts of man,
That they are a mere breath (vain, empty, futile).

Can a throne of destruction be allied with You,
One which frames and devises mischief by decree [under the sacred name of law]?

They band themselves together against the life of the righteous
And condemn the innocent to death.

“For forty years I was grieved and disgusted with that generation,
And I said, ‘They are a people who err in their heart,
And they do not acknowledge or regard My ways.’

“Therefore I swore [an oath] in My wrath,
‘They absolutely shall not enter My rest [the land of promise].’”

Moses and Aaron were among His priests,
And Samuel was among those who called on His name;
They called upon the Lord and He answered them.

He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
They kept His testimonies
And the statutes that He gave them.

My eyes will be on the faithful (honorable) of the land, that they may dwell with me;
He who walks blamelessly is the one who will minister to and serve me.

My enemies taunt me all day long;
Those who ridicule me use my name as a curse.

For I have eaten ashes like bread,
And have mingled my drink with tears

“Even they will perish, but You endure;
Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment.
Like clothing You will change them and they shall be changed.

At Your rebuke they fled;
At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away.

You set a boundary [for the waters] that they may not cross over,
So that they will not return to cover the earth.

They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst there.

Beside them the birds of the heavens have their nests;
They lift up their voices and sing among the branches.

When the sun arises, they withdraw
And lie down in their dens.

You give it to them, they gather it up;
You open Your hand, they are filled and satisfied with good [things].

You hide Your face, they are dismayed;
You take away their breath, they die
And return to their dust.

You send out Your Spirit, they are created;
You renew the face of the ground.

He looks at the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

When there were only a few men in number,
Very few [in fact], and strangers in it;

And they wandered from one nation to another,
From one kingdom to another people,

His feet they hurt with shackles;
He was put in chains of iron,

They exhibited His wondrous signs among them,
Great miracles in the land of Ham (Egypt).

He sent [thick, oppressive] darkness and made the land dark;
And Moses and Aaron did not rebel against His words.

Egypt was glad when they departed,
For the dread and fear of them had fallen on the Egyptians.

He gave them the lands of the nations [of Canaan],
So that they would possess the fruits of those peoples’ labor,

So that they might observe His precepts
And keep His laws [obediently accepting and honoring and valuing them].
Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

Our fathers in Egypt did not understand nor appreciate Your miracles;
They did not remember the abundance of Your mercies nor imprint Your lovingkindnesses on their hearts,
But they were rebellious at the sea, at the Red Sea.

Then Israel believed in [the validity of] His words;
They sang His praise.

But they quickly forgot His works;
They did not [patiently] wait for His counsel and purpose [to be revealed regarding them],

They envied Moses in the camp,
And Aaron [the high priest], the holy one of the Lord,

They made a calf in Horeb (Sinai)
And worshiped a cast image.

Thus they exchanged [the true God who was] their glory
For the image of an ox that eats grass.

They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done such great things in Egypt,

Then they despised the pleasant land [of Canaan];
They did not believe in His word nor rely on it,

But they sulked and complained in their tents;
They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.

They joined themselves also to [the idol] Baal of Peor,
And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

Thus they provoked Him to anger with their practices,
And a plague broke out among them.

They provoked Him to anger at the waters of Meribah,
So that it went hard with Moses on their account;

Because they were rebellious against His Spirit,
Moses spoke recklessly with his lips.

They did not destroy the [pagan] peoples [in Canaan],
As the Lord commanded them,

They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons

And shed innocent blood,
Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with their blood.

In this way they became unclean in their practices;
They played the prostitute in their own deeds [by giving their worship, which belongs to God alone, to other “gods”].

He gave them into the hands of the nations,
And those who hated them ruled over them.

Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were subdued under the [powerful] hand of their enemies.

Many times He rescued them;
But they were rebellious in their counsel,
And sank down in their wickedness.

And He remembered His covenant for their sake,
And relented [rescinding their sentence] according to the greatness of His lovingkindness [when they cried out to Him],

They wandered in the wilderness in a [solitary] desert region;
And did not find a way to an inhabited city.

Hungry and thirsty,
They fainted.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He rescued them from their distresses.

He led them by the straight way,
To an inhabited city [where they could establish their homes].

Because they had rebelled against the precepts of God
And spurned the counsel of the Most High.

Therefore He humbled their heart with hard labor;
They stumbled and there was no one to help.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them from their distresses.

They detested all kinds of food,
And they drew near to the gates of death.

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them from their distresses.

They went up toward the heavens [on the crest of the wave], they went down again to the depths [of the watery trough];
Their courage melted away in their misery.

They staggered and trembled like a drunken man,
And were at their wits’ end [all their wisdom was useless].

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brought them out of their distresses.

And there He has the hungry dwell,
So that they may establish an inhabited city,

Also He blesses them so that they multiply greatly,
And He does not let [the number of] their cattle decrease.

When they are diminished and bowed down (humbled)
Through oppression, misery, and sorrow,

Who is wise? Let him observe and heed these things;
And [thoughtfully] consider the lovingkindness of the Lord.

For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.

They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And have fought against me without a cause.

In return for my love, they attack me,
But I am in prayer.

They have repaid me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.

I also have become a reproach and an object of taunting to others;
When they see me, they shake their heads [in derision].

And let them know that this is Your hand;
You, Lord, have done it.

They are upheld forever and ever;
They are done in [absolute] truth and uprightness.

They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;

They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;

They have hands, but they cannot feel;
They have feet, but they cannot walk;
Nor can they make a sound with their throats.

Those who make them will become like them,
Everyone who trusts in them.