Many are saying of me,
“There is no help [no salvation] for him in God.” Selah.

With my voice I was crying to the Lord,
And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah.

Salvation belongs to the Lord;
May Your blessing be upon Your people. Selah.

O sons of men, how long will my honor and glory be [turned into] shame?
How long will you [my enemies] love worthless (vain, futile) things and seek deception and lies? Selah.

But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself [and dealt wonderfully with] the godly man [the one of honorable character and moral courage—the one who does right].
The Lord hears and responds when I call to Him.

Tremble [with anger or fear], and do not sin;
Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still [reflect on your sin and repent of your rebellion]. Selah.

Many are saying, “Oh, that we might see some good!”
Lift up the light of Your face upon us, O Lord.

Let the enemy pursue me and overtake me;
And let him trample my life to the ground
And lay my honor in the dust. Selah.

Arise, O Lord, in Your anger;
Lift up Yourself against the rage of my enemies;
Rise up for me; You have commanded judgment and vindication.

The Lord judges the peoples;
Judge me, O Lord, and grant me justice according to my righteousness and according to the integrity within me.

Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
That You might silence the enemy and make the revengeful cease.

What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him?

That I may tell aloud all Your praises,
That in the gates of the daughter of Zion (Jerusalem)
I may rejoice in Your salvation and Your help.

The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made;
In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught.

The Lord has made Himself known;
He executes judgment;
The wicked are trapped by the work of their own hands. Higgaion (meditation) Selah.

The wicked will turn to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
Even all the nations who forget God.

Put them in [reverent] fear of You, O Lord,
So that the nations may know they are but [frail and mortal] men. Selah.

The wicked, in the haughtiness of his face, will not seek nor inquire for Him;
All his thoughts are, “There is no God [so there is no accountability or punishment].”

He lurks in a hiding place like a lion in his lair;
He lies in wait to catch the afflicted;
He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net.

To vindicate and obtain justice for the fatherless and the oppressed,
So that man who is of the earth will no longer terrify them.

For look, the wicked are bending the bow;
They take aim with their arrow on the string
To shoot [by stealth] in darkness at the upright in heart.

May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
The tongue that speaks great things [in boasting];

And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.

The [spiritually ignorant] fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they have committed repulsive and unspeakable deeds;
There is no one who does good.

They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.

Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When the Lord restores His captive people,
Then Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.

Hear the just (righteous) cause, O Lord; listen to my loud [piercing] cry;
Listen to my prayer, that comes from guileless lips.

Let my verdict of vindication come from Your presence;
May Your eyes look with equity and behold things that are just.

You have tried my heart;
You have visited me in the night;
You have tested me and You find nothing [evil in me];
I intend that my mouth will not transgress.

He trains my hands for war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You enlarge the path beneath me and make my steps secure,
So that my feet will not slip.

I shattered them so that they were not able to rise;
They fell [wounded] under my feet.

You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me [in defeat],
And I silenced and destroyed those who hated me.

May He remember all your meal offerings
And accept your burnt offering. Selah.

Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.

You have given him his heart’s desire,
And You have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.

“He trusted and committed himself to the Lord, let Him save him.
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”

All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship;
All those who go down to the dust (the dead) will bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.

They will come and declare His righteousness
To a people yet to be born—that He has done it [and that it is finished].

This is the generation (description) of those who diligently seek Him and require Him as their greatest need,
Who seek Your face, even [as did] Jacob. Selah.

Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in.

Lift up your heads, O gates,
And lift them up, ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in.

Who is [He then] this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory [who rules over all creation with His heavenly armies]. Selah.

Who is the man who fears the Lord [with awe-inspired reverence and worships Him with submissive wonder]?
He will teach him [through His word] in the way he should choose.

That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving
And declare all Your wonders.

One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life,
To gaze upon the beauty [the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur] of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple.

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

O Lord, You have brought my life up from Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead);
You have kept me alive, so that I would not go down to the pit (grave).

That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

You will draw me out of the net that they have secretly laid for me,
For You are my strength and my stronghold.

For day and night Your hand [of displeasure] was heavy upon me;
My energy (vitality, strength) was drained away as with the burning heat of summer. Selah.

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

You are my hiding place; You, Lord, protect me from trouble;
You surround me with songs and shouts of deliverance. Selah.

O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good;
How blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who takes refuge in Him.

Who is the man who desires life
And loves many days, that he may see good?

Let destruction come upon my enemy by surprise;
Let the net he hid for me catch him;
Into that very destruction let him fall.

Malicious witnesses rise up;
They ask me of things that I do not know.

Do not let them say in their heart, “Aha, that is what we wanted!”
Do not let them say, “We have swallowed him up and destroyed him.”

For he flatters and deceives himself in his own eyes
Thinking that his sinfulness will not be discovered and hated [by God].

He plans wrongdoing on his bed;
He sets himself on a path that is not good;
He does not reject or despise evil.

Do not worry because of evildoers,
Nor be envious toward wrongdoers;

The Lord laughs at him [the wicked one—the one who oppresses the righteous],
For He sees that his day [of defeat] is coming.

Better is the little of the righteous [who seek the will of God]
Than the abundance (riches) of many wicked (godless).

But the wicked (ungodly) will perish,
And the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures and like the fat of lambs [that is consumed in smoke],
They vanish—like smoke they vanish away.

For those blessed by God will [at last] inherit the land,
But those cursed by Him will be cut off.

Those who seek my life lay snares for me,
And those who seek to injure me threaten mischievous things and destruction;
They devise treachery all the day long.

They repay evil for good, they attack and try to kill me,
Because I follow what is good.

I said, “I will guard my ways
That I may not sin with my tongue;
I will muzzle my mouth
While the wicked are in my presence.”

“Behold, You have made my days as [short as] hand widths,
And my lifetime is as nothing in Your sight.
Surely every man at his best is a mere breath [a wisp of smoke, a vapor that vanishes]! Selah.

“With rebukes You discipline man for sin;
You consume like a moth what is precious to him;
Surely every man is a mere breath [a wisp of smoke, a vapor that vanishes]. Selah.

“O look away from me, that I may smile and again know joy
Before I depart and am no more.”

For innumerable evils have encompassed me;
My sins have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see.
They are more numerous than the hairs of my head,
And my heart has failed me.

Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let those who love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”

“A wicked thing is poured out upon him and holds him;
And when he lies down, he will not rise up again.”

But You, O Lord, be gracious to me and restore me [to health],
So that I may repay them.

By this I know that You favor and delight in me,
Because my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.

You drove out the [pagan] nations with Your own hand;
Then you planted and established them (Israel);
[It was by Your power that] You uprooted the [pagan] peoples,
Then You spread them abroad.

In God we have boasted all the day long,
And we will praise and give thanks to Your name forever. Selah.

She will be brought to the King in embroidered garments;
The virgins, her companions who follow her,
Will be brought to You.

Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains tremble at its roaring. Selah.

The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

“Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold [our refuge, our high tower]. Selah.

He chooses our inheritance for us,
The glory and excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah.

As we have heard, so have we seen
In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God:
God will establish her forever. Selah.

Consider her ramparts,
Go through her palaces,
That you may tell the next generation [about her glory].

So that he should live on eternally,
That he should never see the pit (grave) and undergo decay.

For he sees that even wise men die;
The fool and the stupid alike perish
And leave their wealth to others.

Their inward thought is that their houses will continue forever,
And their dwelling places to all generations;
They have named their lands after their own names [ignoring God].

But man, with all his [self] honor and pomp, will not endure;
He is like the beasts that perish.

This is the fate of those who are foolishly confident,
And of those after them who approve [and are influenced by] their words. Selah.

But God will redeem my life from the power of Sheol,
For He will receive me. Selah.

A man [who is held] in honor,
Yet who lacks [spiritual] understanding and a teachable heart, is like the beasts that perish.

He summons the heavens above,
And the earth, to judge His people:

And the heavens declare His righteousness,
For God Himself is judge. Selah.

“For you hate instruction and discipline
And cast My words behind you [discarding them].

“He who offers a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving honors Me;
And to him who orders his way rightly [who follows the way that I show him],
I shall show the salvation of God.”

Against You, You only, have I sinned
And done that which is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak [Your sentence]
And faultless in Your judgment.

You love evil more than good,
And falsehood more than speaking what is right. Selah.

But God will break you down forever;
He will take you away and tear you away from your tent,
And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah.