Psalm 93-95

Easy-to-Read Version

93 The Lord is King.
    The Lord wears majesty and strength like clothes.
He is ready, so the whole world is safe.
    It will not be shaken.
² Your kingdom has continued forever.
    You have lived forever!
³ Lord, the ocean roars.
    The mighty ocean sounds like thunder
    as the waves crash on the shore.
⁴ The crashing waves of the sea are loud and powerful,
    but the Lord above is even more powerful.
⁵ Lord, your laws will continue forever.^[a]
    Your holy Temple will stand for a long time.

94 The Lord is a God who punishes people.
    God, come punish them.
² You are the judge of the whole earth.
    Give proud people the punishment they deserve.
³ Lord, how long will the wicked have their fun?
    How much longer?
⁴ How much longer will those criminals
    brag about the evil they did?
⁵ Lord, they hurt your people
    and make them suffer.
⁶ They kill widows and foreigners living in our country.
    They murder orphans.
⁷ And they say the Lord does not see them doing these evil things!
    They say the God of Jacob does not know what is happening.

⁸ You evil people are foolish.
    When will you learn your lesson?
You are so stupid!
    You must try to understand.
⁹ God made our ears,
    so surely he can hear what is happening!
He made our eyes,
    so surely he can see you!
¹⁰ The one who disciplines nations will surely correct you.
    He is the one who teaches us everything.
¹¹ The Lord knows what people are thinking.
    He knows that their thoughts are like a puff of wind.

¹² Lord, great blessings belong to those you discipline,
    to those you teach from your law.
¹³ You help them stay calm when trouble comes.
    You will help them until the wicked are put in their graves.
¹⁴ The Lord will not leave his people.
    He will not leave them without help.
¹⁵ Justice will return and bring fairness.
    And those who want to do right will be there to see it.

¹⁶ No one helped me fight against the wicked.
    No one stood with me against those who do evil.
¹⁷ And if the Lord had not helped me,
    I would have been silenced by death.
¹⁸ I know I was ready to fall,
    but, Lord, your faithful love supported me.
¹⁹ I was very worried and upset,
    but you comforted me and made me happy!

²⁰ You don’t help crooked judges.
    They use the law to make life hard for the people.
²¹ They attack those who do right.
    They say innocent people are guilty and put them to death.
²² But the Lord is my place of safety, high on the mountain.
    God, my Rock, is my safe place!
²³ He will punish those evil judges for the bad things they did.
    He will destroy them because they sinned.
    The Lord our God will destroy them.

95 Come, let us sing praise to the Lord!
    Let us shout praises to the Rock who saves us.
² Come and worship him with songs of thanks.^[b]
    Let us sing happy songs of praise to him.
³ For the Lord is a great God,
    the great King ruling over all the other “gods.”
⁴ The deepest caves and the highest mountains belong to him.
⁵ The ocean is his—he created it.
    He made the dry land with his own hands.
⁶ Come, let us bow down and worship him!
    Let us kneel before the Lord who made us.
⁷ He is our God,
    and we are the people he cares for,
    his sheep that walk by his side.

Listen to his voice today:
⁸     “Don’t be stubborn, as you were at Meribah,
    as you were at Massah^[c] in the desert.
⁹ Your ancestors doubted and tested me,
    even after they saw what I could do!
¹⁰ I was angry with them for 40 years.
    I said, ‘They are not faithful to me.
    They refuse to do what I say.’
¹¹ So in my anger I made this vow:
    ‘They will never enter my land of rest.’”