¹May the Lord answer you when you are in distress;

may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

²May he send you help from the sanctuary

and grant you support from Zion.

³May he remember all your sacrifices

and accept your burnt offerings.

⁴May he give you the desire of your heart

and make all your plans succeed.

⁵May we shout for joy over your victory

and lift up our banners in the name of our God.

May the Lord grant all your requests.

⁶Now this I know:

the Lord gives victory to his anointed.

He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary

with the victorious power of his right hand.

⁷Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

⁸They are brought to their knees and fall,

but we rise up and stand firm.

⁹ Lord, give victory to the king!

Answer us when we call!

¹I love you, Lord, my strength.

²The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

³I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,

and I have been saved from my enemies.

⁴The cords of death entangled me;

the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

⁵The cords of the grave coiled around me;

the snares of death confronted me.

⁶In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried to my God for help.

From his temple he heard my voice;

my cry came before him, into his ears.

⁷The earth trembled and quaked,

and the foundations of the mountains shook;

they trembled because he was angry.

⁸Smoke rose from his nostrils;

consuming fire came from his mouth,

burning coals blazed out of it.

⁹He parted the heavens and came down;

dark clouds were under his feet.

¹⁰He mounted the cherubim and flew;

he soared on the wings of the wind.

¹¹He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him –

the dark rain clouds of the sky.

¹²Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,

with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

¹³The Lord thundered from heaven;

the voice of the Most High resounded.

¹⁴He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,

with great bolts of lightning he routed them.

¹⁵The valleys of the sea were exposed

and the foundations of the earth laid bare

at your rebuke, Lord,

at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

¹⁶He reached down from on high and took hold of me;

he drew me out of deep waters.

¹⁷He rescued me from my powerful enemy,

from my foes, who were too strong for me.

¹⁸They confronted me in the day of my disaster,

but the Lord was my support.

¹⁹He brought me out into a spacious place;

he rescued me because he delighted in me.

²⁰The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness;

according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.

²¹For I have kept the ways of the Lord;

I am not guilty of turning from my God.

²²All his laws are before me;

I have not turned away from his decrees.

²³I have been blameless before him

and have kept myself from sin.

²⁴The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,

according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

²⁵To the faithful you show yourself faithful,

to the blameless you show yourself blameless,

²⁶to the pure you show yourself pure,

but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.

²⁷You save the humble

but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.

²⁸You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;

my God turns my darkness into light.

²⁹With your help I can advance against a troop;

with my God I can scale a wall.

³⁰As for God, his way is perfect:

the Lord’s word is flawless;

he shields all who take refuge in him.

³¹For who is God besides the Lord?

And who is the Rock except our God?

³²It is God who arms me with strength

and keeps my way secure.

³³He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;

he causes me to stand on the heights.

³⁴He trains my hands for battle;

my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁵You make your saving help my shield,

and your right hand sustains me;

your help has made me great.

³⁶You provide a broad path for my feet,

so that my ankles do not give way.

³⁷I pursued my enemies and overtook them;

I did not turn back till they were destroyed.

³⁸I crushed them so that they could not rise;

they fell beneath my feet.

³⁹You armed me with strength for battle;

you humbled my adversaries before me.

⁴⁰You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,

and I destroyed my foes.

⁴¹They cried for help, but there was no-one to save them –

to the Lord, but he did not answer.

⁴²I beat them as fine as windblown dust;

I trampled them like mud in the streets.

⁴³You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;

you have made me the head of nations.

People I did not know now serve me,

⁴⁴foreigners cower before me;

as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.

⁴⁵They all lose heart;

they come trembling from their strongholds.

⁴⁶The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!

Exalted be God my Saviour!

⁴⁷He is the God who avenges me,

who subdues nations under me,

⁴⁸who saves me from my enemies.

You exalted me above my foes;

from a violent man you rescued me.

⁴⁹Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;

I will sing the praises of your name.

⁵⁰He gives his king great victories;

he shows unfailing love to his anointed,

to David and to his descendants for ever.

¹How long, Lord? Will you forget me for ever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

²How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³Look on me and answer, Lord my God.

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,

⁴and my enemy will say, ‘I have overcome him,’

and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶I will sing the Lord’s praise,

for he has been good to me.

¹Why, Lord, do you stand far off?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

²In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,

who are caught in the schemes he devises.

³He boasts about the cravings of his heart;

he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.

⁴In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;

in all his thoughts there is no room for God.

⁵His ways are always prosperous;

your laws are rejected by him;

he sneers at all his enemies.

⁶He says to himself, ‘Nothing will ever shake me.’

He swears, ‘No-one will ever do me harm.’

⁷His mouth is full of lies and threats;

trouble and evil are under his tongue.

⁸He lies in wait near the villages;

from ambush he murders the innocent.

His eyes watch in secret for his victims;

⁹like a lion in cover he lies in wait.

He lies in wait to catch the helpless;

he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.

¹⁰His victims are crushed, they collapse;

they fall under his strength.

¹¹He says to himself, ‘God will never notice;

he covers his face and never sees.’

¹²Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.

Do not forget the helpless.

¹³Why does the wicked man revile God?

Why does he say to himself,

‘He won’t call me to account’?

¹⁴But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;

you consider their grief and take it in hand.

The victims commit themselves to you;

you are the helper of the fatherless.

¹⁵Break the arm of the wicked man;

call the evildoer to account for his wickedness

that would not otherwise be found out.

¹⁶The Lord is King for ever and ever;

the nations will perish from his land.

¹⁷You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;

you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,

¹⁸defending the fatherless and the oppressed,

so that mere earthly mortals

will never again strike terror.

¹I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

²I will be glad and rejoice in you;

I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

³My enemies turn back;

they stumble and perish before you.

⁴For you have upheld my right and my cause,

sitting enthroned as the righteous judge.

⁵You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;

you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.

⁶Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies,

you have uprooted their cities;

even the memory of them has perished.

⁷The Lord reigns for ever;

he has established his throne for judgment.

⁸He rules the world in righteousness

and judges the peoples with equity.

⁹The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of trouble.

¹⁰Those who know your name trust in you,

for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

¹¹Sing the praises of the Lord, enthroned in Zion;

proclaim among the nations what he has done.

¹²For he who avenges blood remembers;

he does not ignore the cries of the afflicted.

¹³ Lord, see how my enemies persecute me!

Have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death,

¹⁴that I may declare your praises

in the gates of Daughter Zion,

and there rejoice in your salvation.

¹⁵The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug;

their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

¹⁶The Lord is known by his acts of justice;

the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.

¹⁷The wicked go down to the realm of the dead,

all the nations that forget God.

¹⁸But God will never forget the needy;

the hope of the afflicted will never perish.

¹⁹Arise, Lord, do not let mortals triumph;

let the nations be judged in your presence.

²⁰Strike them with terror, Lord;

let the nations know they are only mortal.

A psalm of David.

¹ Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger

or discipline me in your wrath.

²Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint;

heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.

³My soul is in deep anguish.

How long, Lord, how long?

⁴Turn, Lord, and deliver me;

save me because of your unfailing love.

⁵Among the dead no-one proclaims your name.

Who praises you from his grave?

⁶I am worn out from my groaning.

All night long I flood my bed with weeping

and drench my couch with tears.

⁷My eyes grow weak with sorrow;

they fail because of all my foes.

⁸Away from me, all you who do evil,

for the Lord has heard my weeping.

⁹The Lord has heard my cry for mercy;

the Lord accepts my prayer.

¹⁰All my enemies will be overwhelmed with shame and anguish;

they will turn back and suddenly be put to shame.

A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.

¹ Lord, how many are my foes!

How many rise up against me!

²Many are saying of me,

‘God will not deliver him.’

³But you, Lord, are a shield around me,

my glory, the One who lifts my head high.

⁴I call out to the Lord,

and he answers me from his holy mountain.

⁵I lie down and sleep;

I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.

⁶I will not fear though tens of thousands

assail me on every side.

⁷Arise, Lord!

Deliver me, my God!

Strike all my enemies on the jaw;

break the teeth of the wicked.

⁸From the Lord comes deliverance.

May your blessing be on your people.