Psalm 6-10
Amplified Bible
Prayer for Mercy in Time of Trouble.
To the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, set [possibly] an octave below. A Psalm of David.
6 O Lord, do not rebuke or punish me in Your anger,
Nor discipline me in Your wrath.
2
Have mercy on me and be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am weak (faint, frail);
Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed and anguished.
3
My soul [as well as my body] is greatly dismayed.
But as for You, O Lord—how long [until You act on my behalf]?
4
Return, O Lord, rescue my soul;
Save me because of Your [unfailing] steadfast love and mercy.
5
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?
6
I am weary with my groaning;
Every night I soak my bed with tears,
I drench my couch with my weeping.
7
My eye grows dim with grief;
It grows old because of all my enemies.
8
Depart from me, all you who do evil,
For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.(A)
9
The Lord has heard my supplication [my plea for grace];
The Lord receives my prayer.
10
Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly horrified;
Let them turn back, let them suddenly be ashamed [of what they have done].
The Lord Implored to Defend the Psalmist against the Wicked.
An [a]Ode of David, [perhaps in a wild, irregular, enthusiastic strain,] which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite.
7 O Lord my God, in You I take refuge;
Save me and rescue me from all those who pursue me,
2
So that my enemy will not tear me like a lion,
Dragging me away while there is no one to rescue [me].
3
O Lord my God, if I have done this,
If there is injustice in my hands,
4
If I have done evil to him who was at peace with me,
Or without cause robbed him who was my enemy,
5
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.
6
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.
7
Let the assembly of the nations be gathered around You,
And return on high over them.
8
The Lord judges the peoples;
Judge me, O Lord, and grant me justice according to my righteousness and according to the integrity within me.
9
Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous [those in right standing with You];
For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.(B)
10
My shield and my defense depend on God,
Who saves the upright in heart.
11
God is a righteous judge,
And a God who is indignant every day.
12
If a man does not repent, God will sharpen His sword;
He has strung and bent His [mighty] bow and made it ready.
13
He has also prepared [other] deadly weapons for Himself;
He makes His arrows fiery shafts [aimed at the unrepentant].
14
Behold, the [wicked and irreverent] man is pregnant with sin,
And he conceives mischief and gives birth to lies.
15
He has dug a pit and hollowed it out,
And has fallen into the [very] pit which he made [as a trap].
16
His mischief will return on his own head,
And his violence will come down on the top of his head [like loose dirt].
17
I will give thanks to the Lord according to His righteousness and justice,
And I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.
The Lord’s Glory and Man’s Dignity.
To the Chief Musician; set to [b]a Philistine lute [or perhaps to a particular Hittite tune]. A Psalm of David.
8 O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic and glorious and excellent is Your name in all the earth!
You have displayed Your splendor above the heavens.
2
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.(C)
3
When I see and consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have established,
4
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him?
5
Yet You have made him a little lower than [c]God,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
6
You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,(D)
7
All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field,
8
The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9
O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic and glorious and excellent is Your name in all the earth!
A Psalm of Thanksgiving for God’s Justice.
To the Chief Musician; on [d]Muth-labben. A Psalm of David.
9 I will give thanks and praise the Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell aloud all Your wonders and marvelous deeds.
2
I will rejoice and exult in you;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
3
When my enemies turn back,
They stumble and perish before You.
4
For You have maintained my right and my cause;
You have sat on the throne judging righteously.
5
You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked and unrepentant;
You have wiped out their name forever and ever.
6
The enemy has been cut off and has vanished in everlasting ruins,
You have uprooted their cities;
The very memory of them has perished.
7
But the Lord will remain and sit enthroned forever;
He has prepared and established His throne for judgment.(E)
8
And He will judge the world in righteousness;
He will execute judgment for the nations with fairness (equity).(F)
9
The Lord also will be a refuge and a stronghold for the oppressed,
A refuge in times of trouble;
10
And those who know Your name [who have experienced Your precious mercy] will put their confident trust in You,
For You, O Lord, have not abandoned those who seek You.(G)
11
Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion;
Declare among the peoples His [great and wondrous] deeds.
12
For He who avenges blood [unjustly shed] remembers them (His people);
He does not forget the cry of the afflicted and abused.
13
Have mercy on me and be gracious to me, O Lord;
See how I am afflicted by those who hate me,
You who lift me up from the gates of death,
14
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.
15
The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made;
In the net which they hid, their own foot has been caught.
16
The Lord has made Himself known;
He executes judgment;
The wicked are trapped by the work of their own hands. Higgaion (meditation) Selah.
17
The wicked will turn to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
Even all the nations who forget God.
18
For the poor will not always be forgotten,
Nor the hope of the burdened perish forever.
19
Arise, O Lord, do not let man prevail;
Let the nations be judged before You.
20
Put them in [reverent] [e]fear of You, O Lord,
So that the nations may know they are but [frail and mortal] men. Selah.
A Prayer for the Overthrow of the Wicked.
10 Why do You stand far away, O Lord?
Why do You hide [Yourself, veiling Your eyes] in times of trouble?
2
In pride and arrogance the wicked hotly pursue and persecute the afflicted;
Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
3
For the wicked boasts and sings the praises of his heart’s desire,
And the greedy man curses and spurns [and even despises] the Lord.
4
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].”
5
His ways prosper at all times;
Your judgments [Lord] are on high, out of his sight [so he never thinks about them];
As for all his enemies, he sneers at them.
6
He says to himself, “I will not be moved;
For throughout all generations I will not be in adversity [for nothing bad will happen to me].”
7
His mouth is full of curses and deceit (fraud) and oppression;
Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness [injustice and sin].
8
He lurks in ambush in the villages;
In hiding places he kills the innocent;
He lies in wait for the unfortunate [the unhappy, the poor, the helpless].
9
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.
10
He crushes [his prey] and crouches;
And the unfortunate fall by his mighty claws.
11
He says to himself, “God has [quite] forgotten;
He has hidden His face; He will never see my deed.”
12
Arise, O Lord! O God, lift up Your hand [in judgment];
Do not forget the suffering.
13
Why has the wicked spurned and shown disrespect to God?
He has said to himself, “You will not require me to account.”
14
You have seen it, for You have noted mischief and vexation (irritation) to take it into Your hand.
The unfortunate commits himself to You;
You are the helper of the fatherless.
15
Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer,
Seek out his wickedness until You find no more.
16
The Lord is King forever and ever;
The nations will perish from His land.
17
O Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble and oppressed;
You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear to hear,
18
To vindicate and obtain justice for the fatherless and the oppressed,
So that man who is of the earth will no longer terrify them.
Footnotes
- Psalm 7:1 Meaning uncertain, perhaps a wild, enthusiastic song. The ancient rabbis connected the Hebrew word to another word of similar spelling meaning “inadvertent sin” or “error,” and maintained that God called David to account for what he said in 6:10. He had in essence cursed his enemies, and God supposedly pointed out that Saul was David’s enemy, so David thereby had cursed Saul in violation of Ex 22:28. David pleaded with God to count this a sin of error on his part, and thereafter composed Ps 7. The rabbis also maintained that Cush was a reference to Saul (cf 1 Sam 9:1).
- Psalm 8:1 Or perhaps to a particular key; meaning uncertain.
- Psalm 8:5 LXX reads angels; Heb Elohim is usually translated “God” or “god.” But it can also mean “gods” (with a lowercase “g”) when it is used with reference to the pagan gods of other nations. See, for instance, Ex 20:3: “You shall have no other gods (Elohim) before Me.” Since there are no capital letters in Hebrew as there are in English, the meaning of Ps 8:5 is ambiguous. It may be saying that humans were created a little lower than God Himself, or it may say that humans were created a little lower than the heavenly beings.
- Psalm 9:1 A transliteration of the Hebrew, whose meaning is unknown. Possibly referring to a tune titled “Death to the Son.” Perhaps for soprano voices.
- Psalm 9:20 The “fear” of God is a common concept in the OT, but is difficult to translate into English. It is not simply a matter of “fear” in the modern English sense. Nor is it only a sentiment of deep reverence. It implies obedience, as well.
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