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

For all His ordinances were before me,
And I did not put away His statutes from me.

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

They cried for help, but there was none to save,
Even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.

I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.

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.

But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together;
The smiters whom I did not know gathered together against me,
They slandered me without ceasing.

For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.
O God, we have heard with our ears,
Our fathers have told us
The work that You did in their days,
In the days of old.

For by their own sword they did not possess the land,
And their own arm did not save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
For You favored them.

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

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

And not be like their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

They did not keep the covenant of God
And refused to walk in His law;

Because they did not believe in God
And did not trust in His salvation.

Man did eat the bread of angels;
He sent them food in abundance.

In spite of all this they still sinned
And did not believe in His wonderful works.

But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them;
And often He restrained His anger
And did not arouse all His wrath.

They did not remember His power,
The day when He redeemed them from the adversary,

He leveled a path for His anger;
He did not spare their soul from death,
But gave over their life to the plague,

He led them safely, so that they did not fear;
But the sea engulfed their enemies.

Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God
And did not keep His testimonies,

He also rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

They have given the dead bodies of Your servants for food to the birds of the heavens,
The flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth.

He established it for a testimony in Joseph
When he went throughout the land of Egypt.
I heard a language that I did not know:

“But My people did not listen to My voice,
And Israel did not obey Me.

Forsaken among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in the grave,
Whom You remember no more,
And they are cut off from Your hand.

Will You perform wonders for the dead?
Will the departed spirits rise and praise You? Selah.

That when the wicked sprouted up like grass
And all who did iniquity flourished,
It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.

For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you would hear His voice,

He sent darkness and made it dark;
And they did not rebel against His words.

Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders;
They did not remember Your abundant kindnesses,
But rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.

They quickly forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel,

Then they despised the pleasant land;
They did not believe in His word,

But grumbled in their tents;
They did not listen to the voice of the Lord.

They joined themselves also to Baal-peor,
And ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

They did not destroy the peoples,
As the Lord commanded them,

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

Because he did not remember to show lovingkindness,
But persecuted the afflicted and needy man,
And the despondent in heart, to put them to death.

He also loved cursing, so it came to him;
And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him.

The dead do not praise the Lord,
Nor do any who go down into silence;

I hastened and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.

They almost destroyed me on earth,
But as for me, I did not forsake Your precepts.

For the enemy has persecuted my soul;
He has crushed my life to the ground;
He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have long been dead.