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.

You with Your own hand drove out the nations;
Then You planted them;
You afflicted the peoples,
Then You spread them abroad.

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.

You are my King, O God;
Command victories for Jacob.

Through You we will push back our adversaries;
Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.

For I will not trust in my bow,
Nor will my sword save me.

But You have saved us from our adversaries,
And You have put to shame those who hate us.

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

Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor,
And do not go out with our armies.

You cause us to turn back from the adversary;
And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.

You give us as sheep to be eaten
And have scattered us among the nations.

You sell Your people cheaply,
And have not profited by their sale.

You make us a reproach to our neighbors,
A scoffing and a derision to those around us.

You make us a byword among the nations,
A laughingstock among the peoples.

Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,
Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.

All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You,
And we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.

Our heart has not turned back,
And our steps have not deviated from Your way,

Yet You have crushed us in a place of jackals
And covered us with the shadow of death.

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

But for Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord?
Awake, do not reject us forever.

Why do You hide Your face
And forget our affliction and our oppression?

For the choir director; according to the Shoshannim. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. A Song of Love.
My heart overflows with a good theme;
I address my verses to the King;
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.

Gird Your sword on Your thigh, O Mighty One,
In Your splendor and Your majesty!

And in Your majesty ride on victoriously,
For the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness;
Let Your right hand teach You awesome things.

Your arrows are sharp;
The peoples fall under You;
Your arrows are in the heart of the King’s enemies.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You
With the oil of joy above Your fellows.

All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad.

Listen, O daughter, give attention and incline your ear:
Forget your people and your father’s house;

The daughter of Tyre will come with a gift;
The rich among the people will seek your favor.

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

In place of your fathers will be your sons;
You shall make them princes in all the earth.

I will cause Your name to be remembered in all generations;
Therefore the peoples will give You thanks forever and ever.

For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah, set to Alamoth. A Song.
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.

Come, behold the works of the Lord,
Who has wrought desolations in the earth.

“Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

For the choir director. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
O clap your hands, all peoples;
Shout to God with the voice of joy.

For the Lord Most High is to be feared,
A great King over all the earth.

God has ascended with a shout,
The Lord, with the sound of a trumpet.

For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with a skillful psalm.

God, in her palaces,
Has made Himself known as a stronghold.

Panic seized them there,
Anguish, as of a woman in childbirth.

With the east wind
You break the ships of Tarshish.

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.

We have thought on Your lovingkindness, O God,
In the midst of Your temple.

As is Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness.

Consider her ramparts;
Go through her palaces,
That you may tell it to the next generation.

I will incline my ear to a proverb;
I will express my riddle on the harp.

Why should I fear in days of adversity,
When the iniquity of my foes surrounds me,

Even those who trust in their wealth
And boast in the abundance of their riches?

No man can by any means redeem his brother
Or give to God a ransom for him—

This is the way of those who are foolish,
And of those after them who approve their words. Selah.

Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich,
When the glory of his house is increased;

For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
His glory will not descend after him.

Though while he lives he congratulates himself—
And though men praise you when you do well for yourself—

“Gather My godly ones to Me,
Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”

“Hear, O My people, and I will speak;
O Israel, I will testify against you;
I am God, your God.

“I do not reprove you for your sacrifices,
And your burnt offerings are continually before Me.

“I shall take no young bull out of your house
Nor male goats out of your folds.

“For every beast of the forest is Mine,
The cattle on a thousand hills.

“I know every bird of the mountains,
And everything that moves in the field is Mine.

“If I were hungry I would not tell you,
For the world is Mine, and all it contains.

“Shall I eat the flesh of bulls
Or drink the blood of male goats?

“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
And pay your vows to the Most High;

Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”

But to the wicked God says,
“What right have you to tell of My statutes
And to take My covenant in your mouth?

“For you hate discipline,
And you cast My words behind you.

“When you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
And you associate with adulterers.

“You let your mouth loose in evil
And your tongue frames deceit.

“You sit and speak against your brother;
You slander your own mother’s son.

“These things you have done and I kept silence;
You thought that I was just like you;
I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.

“Now consider this, you who forget God,
Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.

“He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me;
And to him who orders his way aright
I shall show the salvation of God.”

For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.

For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.

Against You, You only, I have sinned
And done what is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak
And blameless when You judge.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.

Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.

Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness,
Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
And sustain me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners will be converted to You.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips,
That my mouth may declare Your praise.

For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
You are not pleased with burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices,
In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

For the choir director. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The lovingkindness of God endures all day long.

Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, O worker of deceit.

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

You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.

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

“Behold, the man who would not make God his refuge,
But trusted in the abundance of his riches
And was strong in his evil desire.”

But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust in the lovingkindness of God forever and ever.