A Song, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. To the chief Musician. Upon Mahalath Leannoth. An instruction. Of Heman the Ezrahite.

88 Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have cried by day [and] in the night before thee.

² Let my prayer come before thee; incline thine ear unto my cry.

³ For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to Sheol.

⁴ I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength:

⁵ Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand.

⁶ Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.

⁷ Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.

⁸ Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

⁹ Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

¹⁰ Wilt thou do wonders to the dead? shall the shades arise and praise thee? Selah.

¹¹ Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in Destruction?

¹² Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³ But as for me, Jehovah, I cry unto thee, and in the morning my prayer cometh before thee.

¹⁴ Why, O Jehovah, castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?

¹⁵ I am afflicted and expiring from my youth up; I suffer thy terrors, [and] I am distracted.

¹⁶ Thy fierce anger hath gone over me; thy terrors have brought me to nought:

¹⁷ They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together.

¹⁸ Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.

An instruction. Of Ethan the Ezrahite.

89 I will sing of the loving-kindness of Jehovah for ever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness from generation to generation.

² For I said, Loving-kindness shall be built up for ever; in the very heavens wilt thou establish thy faithfulness.

³ I have made a covenant with mine elect, I have sworn unto David my servant:

⁴ Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne from generation to generation. Selah.

⁵ And the heavens shall celebrate thy wonders, O Jehovah, and thy faithfulness in the congregation of the saints.

⁶ For who in the heaven can be compared to Jehovah? [who] among the sons of the mighty shall be likened to Jehovah?

⁷ God is greatly to be feared in the council of the saints, and terrible for all that are round about him.

⁸ Jehovah, God of hosts, who is like unto thee, the strong Jah? And thy faithfulness is round about thee.

⁹ *Thou* rulest the pride of the sea: when its waves arise, *thou* stillest them.

¹⁰ Thou hast crushed Rahab as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy strength.

¹¹ Thine are the heavens, the earth also is thine; the world and its fulness, *thou* hast founded them.

¹² The north and the south, *thou* hast created them: Tabor and Hermon triumph in thy name.

¹³ Thine is the arm of might: strong is thy hand, high is thy right hand.

¹⁴ Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of thy throne; loving-kindness and truth go before thy face.

¹⁵ Blessed is the people that know the shout of joy: they walk, O Jehovah, in the light of thy countenance.

¹⁶ In thy name are they joyful all the day, and in thy righteousness are they exalted.

¹⁷ For thou art the glory of their strength; and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.

¹⁸ For Jehovah is our shield, and the Holy One of Israel, our king.

¹⁹ Then thou spakest in vision of thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

²⁰ I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:

²¹ With whom my hand shall be established; and mine arm shall strengthen him.

²² No enemy shall exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him;

²³ But I will beat down his adversaries before his face, and will smite them that hate him.

²⁴ And my faithfulness and my loving-kindness shall be with him, and by my name shall his horn be exalted.

²⁵ And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.

²⁶ *He* shall call unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation;

²⁷ And as to me, I will make him firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁸ My loving-kindness will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him;

²⁹ And I will establish his seed for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

³⁰ If his sons forsake my law, and walk not in mine ordinances;

³¹ If they profane my statutes, and keep not my commandments:

³² Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.

³³ Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor belie my faithfulness;

³⁴ My covenant will I not profane, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

³⁵ Once have I sworn by my holiness; I will not lie unto David:

³⁶ His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me;

³⁷ It shall be established for ever as the moon, and the witness in the sky is firm. Selah.

³⁸ But thou hast rejected and cast off; thou hast been very wroth with thine anointed:

³⁹ Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his crown to the ground:

⁴⁰ Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin.

⁴¹ All that pass by the way plunder him; he is become a reproach to his neighbours.

⁴² Thou hast exalted the right hand of his oppressors; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice:

⁴³ Yea, thou hast turned back the edge of his sword, and hast not made him stand in the battle.

⁴⁴ Thou hast made his brightness to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground;

⁴⁵ The days of his youth hast thou shortened; thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.

⁴⁶ How long, Jehovah, wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy fury burn like fire?

⁴⁷ Remember, as regards me, what life is. Wherefore hast thou created all the children of men to be vanity?

⁴⁸ What man liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.

⁴⁹ Where, Lord, are thy former loving-kindnesses, [which] thou swarest unto David in thy faithfulness?

⁵⁰ Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants—that I bear in my bosom [that of] all the mighty peoples—

⁵¹ Wherewith thine enemies, O Jehovah, have reproached, wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

⁵² Blessed be Jehovah for evermore! Amen, and Amen.

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

90 Lord, *thou* hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.

² Before the mountains were brought forth, and thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from eternity to eternity thou art God.

³ Thou makest [mortal] man to return to dust, and sayest, Return, children of men.

⁴ For a thousand years, in thy sight, are as yesterday when it is past, and [as] a watch in the night.

⁵ Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are [as] a sleep: in the morning they are like grass [that] groweth up:

⁶ In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down and withereth.

⁷ For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy fury are we troubled.

⁸ Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret [sins] in the light of thy countenance.

⁹ For all our days pass away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a [passing] thought.

¹⁰ The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if, by reason of strength, they be fourscore years, yet their pride is labour and vanity, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

¹¹ Who knoweth the power of thine anger? and thy wrath according to the fear of thee?

¹² So teach [us] to number our days, that we may acquire a wise heart.

¹³ Return, Jehovah: how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

¹⁴ Satisfy us early with thy loving-kindness; that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

¹⁵ Make us glad according to the days [wherein] thou hast afflicted us, according to the years [wherein] we have seen evil.

¹⁶ Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy majesty unto their sons.

¹⁷ And let the beauty of Jehovah our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us: yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it.

91 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

² I say of Jehovah, My refuge and my fortress; my God, I will confide in him.

³ Surely *he* shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, [and] from the destructive pestilence.

⁴ He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou find refuge: his truth is a shield and buckler.

⁵ Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, for the arrow that flieth by day,

⁶ For the pestilence that walketh in darkness, for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

⁷ A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; [but] it shall not come nigh thee.

⁸ Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, and see the reward of the wicked.

⁹ Because *thou* hast made Jehovah, my refuge, the Most High, thy dwelling-place,

¹⁰ There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent.

¹¹ For he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways:

¹² They shall bear thee up in [their] hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

¹³ Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot.

¹⁴ Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

¹⁵ He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him.

¹⁶ With length of days will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

A Psalm, a Song, for the Sabbath day.

92 It is good to give thanks unto Jehovah, and to sing psalms unto thy name, O Most High;

² To declare thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness in the nights,

³ Upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the lute; upon the Higgaion with the harp.

⁴ For thou, Jehovah, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

⁵ Jehovah, how great are thy works! Thy thoughts are very deep:

⁶ A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand it.

⁷ When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity flourish, it is that they may be destroyed for ever.

⁸ And thou, Jehovah, art on high for evermore.

⁹ For lo, thine enemies, O Jehovah, for lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

¹⁰ But my horn shalt thou exalt like a buffalo's: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

¹¹ And mine eye shall see [its desire] on mine enemies; mine ears shall hear [it] of the evil-doers that rise up against me.

¹² The righteous shall shoot forth like a palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar on Lebanon.

¹³ Those that are planted in the house of Jehovah shall flourish in the courts of our God:

¹⁴ They are still vigorous in old age, they are full of sap and green;

¹⁵ To shew that Jehovah is upright: [he is] my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.