Psalm 40-42
New King James Version
Faith Persevering in Trial(A)
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
40 I (B)waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of (C)the miry clay,
And (D)set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
3 (E)He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the Lord.
4 (F)Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust,
And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 (G)Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works
Which You have done;
(H)And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered.
6 (I)Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I come;
In the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 (J)I delight to do Your will, O my God,
And Your law is (K)within my heart.”
9 (L)I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness
In the great assembly;
Indeed, (M)I do not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You Yourself know.
10 (N)I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
From the great assembly.
11 Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord;
(O)Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me;
(P)My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
They are more than the hairs of my head;
Therefore my heart fails me.
13 (Q)Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
O Lord, make haste to help me!
14 (R)Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion
Who seek to destroy my [a]life;
Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor
Who wish me evil.
15 Let them be (S)confounded because of their shame,
Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
16 (T)Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let such as love Your salvation (U)say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”
17 (V)But I am poor and needy;
(W)Yet the Lord thinks upon me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.
The Blessing and Suffering of the Godly
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
41 Blessed is he who considers the [b]poor;
The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
2 The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive,
And he will be blessed on the earth;
(X)You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness;
You will [c]sustain him on his sickbed.
4 I said, “Lord, be merciful to me;
(Y)Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
5 My enemies speak evil of me:
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And if he comes to see me, he speaks [d]lies;
His heart gathers iniquity to itself;
When he goes out, he tells it.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me;
Against me they [e]devise my hurt.
8 “An[f] evil disease,” they say, “clings to him.
And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.”
9 (Z)Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted,
(AA)Who ate my bread,
Has [g]lifted up his heel against me.
10 But You, O Lord, be merciful to me, and raise me up,
That I may repay them.
11 By this I know that You are well pleased with me,
Because my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And (AB)set me before Your face forever.
13 (AC)Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
BOOK TWO
Psalms 42–72
Yearning for God in the Midst of Distresses
To the Chief Musician. A [h]Contemplation of the sons of Korah.
42 As the deer [i]pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 (AD)My soul thirsts for God, for the (AE)living God.
When shall I come and [j]appear before God?
3 (AF)My tears have been my food day and night,
While they continually say to me,
(AG)“Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things,
(AH)I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go with the multitude;
(AI)I went with them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise,
With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
5 (AJ)Why are you [k]cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
(AK)Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
[l]For the help of His countenance.
6 [m]O my God, my soul is cast down within me;
Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan,
And from the heights of Hermon,
From [n]the Hill Mizar.
7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
(AL)All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
8 The Lord will (AM)command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And (AN)in the night His song shall be with me—
A prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will say to God my Rock,
(AO)“Why have You forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a [o]breaking of my bones,
My enemies [p]reproach me,
(AP)While they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 (AQ)Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The [q]help of my countenance and my God.
Footnotes
- Psalm 40:14 Lit. soul
- Psalm 41:1 helpless or powerless
- Psalm 41:3 restore
- Psalm 41:6 empty words
- Psalm 41:7 plot
- Psalm 41:8 Lit. A thing of Belial
- Psalm 41:9 Acted as a traitor
- Psalm 42:1 Heb. Maschil
- Psalm 42:1 Lit. longs for
- Psalm 42:2 So with MT, Vg.; some Heb. mss., LXX, Syr., Tg. I see the face of God
- Psalm 42:5 Lit. bowed down
- Psalm 42:5 So with MT, Tg.; a few Heb. mss., LXX, Syr., Vg. The help of my countenance, my God
- Psalm 42:6 So with MT, Tg.; a few Heb. mss., LXX, Syr., Vg. put my God at the end of v. 5
- Psalm 42:6 Or Mount
- Psalm 42:10 Lit. shattering
- Psalm 42:10 revile
- Psalm 42:11 Lit. salvation
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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