How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

“I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me round about.

But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for Himself;
The Lord hears when I call to Him.

For You have maintained my just cause;
You have sat on the throne judging righteously.

His ways prosper at all times;
Your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.

Why has the wicked spurned God?
He has said to himself, “You will not require it.”

Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?”

“Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,
Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.”

The wicked strut about on every side
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.

I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good besides You.”

I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

They have now surrounded us in our steps;
They set their eyes to cast us down to the ground.

They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
But the Lord was my stay.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.
May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high!

We will sing for joy over your victory,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.

For You meet him with the blessings of good things;
You set a crown of fine gold on his head.

I do not sit with deceitful men,
Nor will I go with pretenders.

I hate the assembly of evildoers,
And I will not sit with the wicked.

When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You,
“Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”

The Lord sat as King at the flood;
Yes, the Lord sits as King forever.

Now as for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I will never be moved.”

And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy;
You have set my feet in a large place.

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

As for me, I said in my alarm,
“I am cut off from before Your eyes”;
Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications
When I cried to You.

I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

They opened their mouth wide against me;
They said, “Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it!”

For I said, “May they not rejoice over me,
Who, when my foot slips, would magnify themselves against me.”

For the choir director, for Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
I said, “I will guard my ways
That I may not sin with my tongue;
I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle
While the wicked are in my presence.”

“Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight;
Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.

He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.

As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”

As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And You set me in Your presence forever.

“You sit and speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother’s son.

Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.

For the choir director; according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,”
They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice;
There is no one who does good.

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

I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.

We who had sweet fellowship together
Walked in the house of God in the throng.

For the choir director; set to Al-tashheth. A Mikhtam of David, when Saul sent men and they watched the house in order to kill him.
Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;
Set me securely on high away from those who rise up against me.

For behold, they have set an ambush for my life;
Fierce men launch an attack against me,
Not for my transgression nor for my sin, O Lord,

For no guilt of mine, they run and set themselves against me.
Arouse Yourself to help me, and see!

Do not trust in oppression
And do not vainly hope in robbery;
If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.

The Lord said, “I will bring them back from Bashan.
I will bring them back from the depths of the sea;

Those who sit in the gate talk about me,
And I am the song of the drunkards.

But I am afflicted and in pain;
May Your salvation, O God, set me securely on high.

He will rescue their life from oppression and violence,
And their blood will be precious in his sight;

They have set their mouth against the heavens,
And their tongue parades through the earth.

If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.

When I pondered to understand this,
It was troublesome in my sight

Surely You set them in slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.

Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place;
They have set up their own standards for signs.

They said in their heart, “Let us completely subdue them.”
They have burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

“The earth and all who dwell in it melt;
It is I who have firmly set its pillars. Selah.

“I said to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’
And to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up the horn;

Then I said, “It is my grief,
That the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

Then they spoke against God;
They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let there be known among the nations in our sight,
Vengeance for the blood of Your servants which has been shed.

Raise a song, strike the timbrel,
The sweet sounding lyre with the harp.

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

They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation,
That the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

Who said, “Let us possess for ourselves
The pastures of God.”

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

But of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”;
And the Most High Himself will establish her.

For I have said, “Lovingkindness will be built up forever;
In the heavens You will establish Your faithfulness.”

I will establish your seed forever
And build up your throne to all generations.” Selah.

Once You spoke in vision to Your godly ones,
And said, “I have given help to one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.

“I shall also set his hand on the sea
And his right hand on the rivers.

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

A thousand may fall at your side
And ten thousand at your right hand,
But it shall not approach you.

“Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.

They have said, “The Lord does not see,
Nor does the God of Jacob pay heed.”

“For forty years I loathed that generation,
And said they are a people who err in their heart,
And they do not know My ways.

Light is sown like seed for the righteous
And gladness for the upright in heart.

The Lord has made known His salvation;
He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.

I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;
I hate the work of those who fall away;
It shall not fasten its grip on me.

To hear the groaning of the prisoner,
To set free those who were doomed to death,

You set a boundary that they may not pass over,
So that they will not return to cover the earth.

O seed of Abraham, His servant,
O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!

The king sent and released him,
The ruler of peoples, and set him free.

Therefore He said that He would destroy them,
Had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him,
To turn away His wrath from destroying them.

And that He would cast their seed among the nations
And scatter them in the lands.

Let them extol Him also in the congregation of the people,
And praise Him at the seat of the elders.

A Psalm of David.
The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

To make them sit with princes,
With the princes of His people.

I believed when I said,
“I am greatly afflicted.”

I said in my alarm,
“All men are liars.”

Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His godly ones.

From my distress I called upon the Lord;
The Lord answered me and set me in a large place.

Even though princes sit and talk against me,
Your servant meditates on Your statutes.

How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

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

For there thrones were set for judgment,
The thrones of the house of David.

A Song of Ascents, of David.
“Had it not been the Lord who was on our side,”
Let Israel now say,

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

Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with joyful shouting;
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”

He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.