You have rescued me from the contentions of the people;
You have placed me as the head of the nations;
A people whom I have not known serve me.

I would have despaired had I not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.

I was mute and silent [before my enemies],
I refrained even from good,
And my distress grew worse.

If we had forgotten the name of our God
Or stretched out our hands to a strange god,

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.

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

We who had sweet fellowship together,
Who walked to the house of God in company.

But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,
My steps had almost slipped.

If I had said, “I will say this,” [and expressed my feelings],
I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.

And they forgot His [incredible] works
And His miraculous wonders that He had shown them.

Before they had satisfied their desire,
And while their food was in their mouths,

So He brought them to His holy land,
To this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.

So that He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,
The tent in which He had dwelled among men,

Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle stood].

From tending the ewes with nursing young He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.

Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him and cringe before Him,
And their time of punishment would be forever.

You have withdrawn all Your wrath,
You have turned away from Your burning anger.

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.

If the Lord had not been my help,
I would soon have dwelt in [the land of] silence.

He sent Moses His servant,
And Aaron, whom He had chosen.

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

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

Therefore He said He would destroy them,
[And He would have done so] had not Moses, His chosen one, stepped into the gap before Him,
To turn away His wrath from destroying them.

He also made them objects of compassion
Among those who had carried them away captive.

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

The cords and sorrows of death encompassed me,
And the terrors of Sheol came upon me;
I found distress and sorrow.

The arrogant utterly ridicule me,
Yet I do not turn away from Your law.

This has become mine [as the gift of Your grace],
That I observe Your precepts [accepting them with loving obedience].

They had almost destroyed me on earth,
But as for me, I did not turn away from Your precepts.

If Your law had not been my delight,
Then I would have perished in my time of trouble.

Too long my soul has had its dwelling
With those who hate peace.

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,”
Let Israel now say,

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