The wicked [those who live in disobedience to God’s law] are not so,
But they are like the chaff [worthless and without substance] which the wind blows away.

For in death there is no mention of You;
In Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) who will praise You and give You thanks?

He says to himself, “God has [quite] forgotten;
He has hidden His face; He will never see my deed.”

For You will not abandon me to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

The cords of Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.

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

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).

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

Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call on You;
Let the wicked (godless) be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead).

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.

We have heard with our ears, O God,
Our fathers have told us
The work You did in their days,
In the days of old.

For our fathers did not possess the land [of Canaan] by their own sword,
Nor did their own arm save them,
But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence,
Because You favored and delighted in them.

Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead);
Death will be their shepherd;
And the upright shall rule over them in the morning,
And their form and beauty shall be for Sheol to consume,
So that they have no dwelling [on earth].

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

Let death come deceitfully upon them;
Let them go down alive to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
For evil [of every kind] is in their dwelling and in their hearts, in their midst.

But those who seek my life to destroy it
Will [be destroyed and] go into the depths of the earth [into the underworld].

He turned the sea into dry land;
They crossed through the river on foot;
There we rejoiced in Him.

You, O God, sent abroad plentiful rain;
You confirmed Your inheritance when it was parched and weary.

Your flock found a dwelling place in it;
O God, in Your goodness You provided for the poor.

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

You divided the [Red] Sea by Your strength;
You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

You crushed the heads of Leviathan (Egypt);
You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

You broke open fountains and streams;
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.

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

He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided].

“Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out
And the streams overflowed;
Can He give bread also?
Or will He provide meat for His people?”

But He, the source of compassion and lovingkindness, forgave their wickedness and did not destroy them;
Many times He restrained His anger
And did not stir up all His wrath.

He leveled a path for His anger [to give it free run];
He did not spare their souls from death,
But turned over their lives to the plague.

They have given the dead bodies of Your servants as 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 the language [of One whom] I did not know, saying,

Deal with them as [You did] with Midian,
As with Sisera and Jabin at the brook of Kishon,

For my soul is full of troubles,
And my life draws near the grave (Sheol, the place of the dead).

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.

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

Will Your wonders be known in the darkness?
And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?

What man can live and not see death?
Can he rescue his soul from the [powerful] hand of Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead)? Selah.

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

For He looked down from His holy height [of His sanctuary],
From heaven the Lord gazed on the earth,

We have sinned like our fathers;
We have committed iniquity, we have behaved wickedly.

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.

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

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

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

Because the man did not remember to show kindness,
But persecuted the suffering and needy man,
And the brokenhearted, to put them to death.

He will execute judgment [in overwhelming punishment] among the nations;
He will fill them with corpses,
He will crush the chief men over a broad country.

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

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

If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead), behold, You are there.

For You formed my innermost parts;
You knit me [together] in my mother’s womb.

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