The singers go in front, the players of instruments last;
Between them the maidens playing on tambourines.

Bless God in the congregations, [give thanks, gratefully praise Him],
The Lord, you who are from [Jacob] the fountain of Israel.

Ascribe strength to God;
His majesty is over Israel
And His strength is in the skies.

O God, You are awesome and profoundly majestic from Your sanctuary;
The God of Israel gives strength and power to His people.
Blessed be God!

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.

O God, You know my folly;
My wrongs are not hidden from You.

You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor [how I am insulted];
My adversaries are all before You [each one fully known].

May their table [with all its abundance and luxury] become a snare [to them];
And when they are in peace [secure at their sacrificial feasts], may it become a trap.

But I am afflicted and needy;
Come quickly to me, O God!
You are my help and my rescuer;
O Lord, do not delay.

Be to me a rock of refuge and a sheltering stronghold to which I may continually come;
You have given the commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.

For You are my hope;
O Lord God, You are my trust and the source of my confidence from my youth.

Upon You have I relied and been sustained from my birth;
You are He who took me from my mother’s womb and You have been my benefactor from that day.
My praise is continually of You.

I am as a wonder to many,
For You are my strong refuge.

Let those who attack my life be ashamed and consumed;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek to injure me.

And even when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not abandon me,
Until I declare Your [mighty] strength to this generation,
Your power to all who are to come.

My tongue also will speak of Your righteousness all day long;
For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek my injury.

The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.

Truly God is good to Israel,
To those who are pure in heart.

They are not in trouble as other men,
Nor are they plagued like mankind.

Therefore his people return to this place,
And waters of abundance [offered by the irreverent] are [blindly] drunk by them.

Behold, these are the ungodly,
Who always prosper and are at ease [in the world]; they have increased in wealth.

How they are destroyed in a moment!
They are completely swept away by sudden terrors!

For behold, those who are far from You will perish;
You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful and have abandoned You.

Consider the covenant [You made with Abraham],
For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

You are glorious and resplendent,
More majestic than the mountains of prey.

The stouthearted have been stripped of their spoil,
They have slept the sleep [of death];
And none of the warriors could use his hands.

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

You, even You, are to be feared [with the submissive wonder of reverence];
Who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry?

Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them;
Let all who are around Him bring gifts to Him who is to be feared [with awe-inspired reverence].

You are the [awesome] God who works [powerful] wonders;
You have demonstrated Your power among the people.

We have become an object of taunting to our neighbors [because of our humiliation],
A derision and mockery to those who encircle us.

O do not remember against us the sins and guilt of our forefathers.
Let Your compassion and mercy come quickly to meet us,
For we have been brought very low.

Let the groaning and sighing of the prisoner come before You;
According to the greatness of Your power keep safe those who are doomed to die.

The rulers do not know nor do they understand;
They walk on in the darkness [of complacent satisfaction];
All the foundations of the earth [the fundamental principles of the administration of justice] are shaken.

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

For behold, Your enemies are in tumult,
And those who hate You have raised their heads [in hatred of You].

That they may know that You alone, whose name is the Lord,
Are the Most High over all the earth.

How lovely are Your dwelling places,
O Lord of hosts!

Blessed and greatly favored are those who dwell in Your house and Your presence;
They will be singing Your praises all the day long. Selah.

Blessed and greatly favored is the man whose strength is in You,
In whose heart are the highways to Zion.

I will hear [with expectant hope] what God the Lord will say,
For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones—
But let them not turn again to folly.

For You, O Lord, are good, and ready to forgive [our sins, sending them away, completely letting them go forever and ever];
And abundant in lovingkindness and overflowing in mercy to all those who call upon You.

There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord,
Nor are there any works [of wonder and majesty] like Yours.

For You are great and do wondrous works!
You alone are God.

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

But You, O Lord, are a God [who protects and is] merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.

Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of God [Jerusalem]. Selah.

The singers as well as the players of flutes will say,
“All my springs and sources of joy are in you [Jerusalem, city of God].”

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

Lover and friend You have placed far from me;
My familiar friends are in darkness.

A God greatly feared and reverently worshiped in the council of the holy [angelic] ones,
And awesome above all those who are around Him?

The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;
The world and all that is in it, You have founded and established them.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;
Lovingkindness and truth go before You.

Blessed and happy are the people who know the joyful sound [of the trumpet’s blast]!
They walk, O Lord, in the light and favor of Your countenance!

In Your name they rejoice all the day,
And in Your righteousness they are exalted.

For You are the glory of their strength [their proud adornment],
And by Your favor our horn is exalted.

“He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father,
My God, and the rock of my salvation.’

O Lord, where are Your former lovingkindnesses [so abundant in the days of David and Solomon],
Which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?

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.

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

You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep [forgotten as soon as they are gone];
In the morning they are like grass which grows anew—

For we have been consumed by Your anger
And by Your wrath we have been terrified.

For all our days pass away in Your wrath;
We have finished our years like a whispered sigh.

The days of our life are seventy years—
Or even, if because of strength, eighty years;
Yet their pride [in additional years] is only labor and sorrow,
For it is soon gone and we fly away.

O satisfy us with Your lovingkindness in the morning [now, before we grow older],
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

He will cover you and completely protect you with His pinions,
And under His wings you will find refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and a wall.

How great are Your works, O Lord!
Your thoughts are very deep [beyond man’s understanding].

That though the wicked sprout up like grass
And all evildoers flourish,
They will be destroyed forever.

But You, Lord, are on high forever.

[They are living memorials] to declare that the Lord is upright and faithful [to His promises];
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting.

Your precepts are fully confirmed and completely reliable;
Holiness adorns Your house,
O Lord, forever.

The Lord knows the thoughts of man,
That they are a mere breath (vain, empty, futile).

In whose hand are the depths of the earth;
The peaks of the mountains are His also.

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 all the gods of the peoples are [worthless, lifeless] idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before Him;
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

Clouds and thick darkness surround Him [as at Sinai];
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

For You are the Lord Most High over all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods.

Know and fully recognize with gratitude that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His].
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

For the Lord is good;
His mercy and lovingkindness are everlasting,
His faithfulness [endures] to all generations.

My enemies taunt me all day long;
Those who ridicule me use my name as a curse.

My days are like an evening shadow that lengthens and vanishes [with the sun];
And as for me, I wither away like grass.

But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever [ruling eternally as sovereign];
And [the fame and glory of] Your name [endures] to all generations.

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

When the peoples are gathered together,
And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.

“At the beginning You founded the earth;
The heavens are the work of Your hands.

The Lord executes righteousness
And justice for all the oppressed.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear and worship Him [with awe-filled respect and deepest reverence].

For He knows our [mortal] frame;
He remembers that we are [merely] dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;
Like a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who [reverently] fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,

Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, You are very great;
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,

[You are the One] who covers Yourself with light as with a garment,
Who stretches out the heavens like a tent curtain,

The trees of the Lord drink their fill,
The cedars of Lebanon which He has planted,

Where the birds make their nests;
As for the stork, the fir trees are her house.

The high mountains are for the wild goats;
The rocks are a refuge for the shephanim.

O Lord, how many and varied are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all;
The earth is full of Your riches and Your creatures.

There is the sea, great and broad,
In which are swarms without number,
Creatures both small and great.