July 4

Psalms 86:1 — 89:52

A prayer of David.

86 Incline, O Jehovah, your ear. Answer me,

      For I am afflicted and poor.

 2 O do guard my soul, for I am loyal.

      Save your servant—you are my God—that is trusting in you.

 3 Show me favor, O Jehovah,

      For to you I keep calling all day long.

 4 Make the soul of your servant rejoice,

      For to you, O Jehovah, I lift up my very soul.

 5 For you, O Jehovah, are good and ready to forgive;

      And the loving-kindness to all those calling upon you is abundant.

 6 Do give ear, O Jehovah, to my prayer;

      And do pay attention to the voice of my entreaties.

 7 In the day of my distress I will call upon you,

      For you will answer me.

 8 There is none like you among the gods, O Jehovah,

      Neither are there any works like yours.

 9 All the nations whom you have made will themselves come,

      And they will bow down before you, O Jehovah,

      And will give glory to your name.

10 For you are great and are doing wondrous things;

       You are God, you alone.

11 Instruct me, O Jehovah, about your way.

       I shall walk in your truth.

       Unify my heart to fear your name.

12 I laud you, O Jehovah my God, with all my heart,

       And I will glorify your name to time indefinite,

13 For your loving-kindness is great toward me,

       And you have delivered my soul out of Sheol, its lowest place.

14 O God, the presumptuous ones themselves have risen up against me;

       And the very assembly of tyrannical ones have looked for my soul,

       And they have not set you in front of themselves.

15 But you, O Jehovah, are a God merciful and gracious,

       Slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness and trueness.

16 Turn to me and show me favor.

       Do give your strength to your servant,

       And do save the son of your slave girl.

17 Work out with me a sign meaning goodness,

       That those hating me may see [it] and be ashamed.

       For you yourself, O Jehovah, have helped me and comforted me.

Of the sons of Korah. A melody, a song.
87 His foundation is in the holy mountains.

 2 Jehovah is more in love with the gates of Zion

      Than with all the tabernacles of Jacob.

 3 Glorious things are being spoken about you, O city of the [true] God. Selah.

 4 I shall make mention of Rahab and Babylon as among those knowing me;

      Here are Philistia and Tyre, together with Cush:

      “This is one who was born there.”

 5 And respecting Zion it will be said:

      “Each and every one was born in her.”

      And the Most High himself will firmly establish her.

 6 Jehovah himself will declare, when recording the peoples:

      “This is one who was born there.” Selah.

 7 There will also be singers as well as dancers of circle dances:

      “All my springs are in you.”

A song, a melody of the sons of Korah. To the director over Mahalath for making responses. Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

88 O Jehovah, the God of my salvation,

      By day I have cried out,

      In the night [also] in front of you.

 2 Before you my prayer will come.

      Incline your ear to my entreating cry.

 3 For my soul has had enough of calamities,

      And my very life has come in touch even with Sheol.

 4 I have been reckoned in among those going down to the pit;

      I have become like an able-bodied man without strength,

 5 Set free among the dead themselves,

      Like slain ones lying in the burial place,

      Whom you have remembered no longer

      And who have been severed from your own [helping] hand.

 6 You have put me in a pit of the lowest depths,

      In dark places, in a large abyss.

 7 Upon me your rage has thrown itself,

      And with all your breaking waves you have afflicted [me]. Selah.

 8 You have put my acquaintances far away from me;

      You have set me as something very detestable to them.

      I am under restraint and cannot go forth.

 9 My own eye has languished because of my affliction.

      I have called on you, O Jehovah, all day long;

      To you I have spread out my palms.

10 For those who are dead will you do a marvel?

       Or will those impotent in death themselves arise,

       Will they laud you? Selah.

11 Will your loving-kindness be declared in the burial place itself,

       Your faithfulness in [the place of] destruction?

12 Will a marvel by you be known in the darkness itself,

       Or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

13 And yet to you, O Jehovah, I myself have cried for help,

       And in the morning my own prayer keeps confronting you.

14 Why is it, O Jehovah, that you cast off my soul?

       Why do you keep your face concealed from me?

15 I am afflicted and about to expire from boyhood on;

       I have borne frightful things from you very much.

16 Over me your flashes of burning anger have passed;

       Terrors from you yourself have brought me to silence.

17 They have surrounded me like waters all day long;

       They have closed in upon me all at one time.

18 You have put far away from me friend and companion;

       My acquaintances are a dark place.

Maskil. Of Ethan the Ezrahite.

89 Jehovah’s expressions of loving-kindness I will sing about even to time indefinite.

      For generation after generation I shall make your faithfulness known with my mouth.

 2 For I have said: “Loving-kindness will stay built even to time indefinite;

      As for the heavens, you keep your faithfulness firmly established in them.”

 3 “I have concluded a covenant toward my chosen one;

      I have sworn to David my servant,

 4 ‘Even to time indefinite I shall firmly establish your seed,

      And I will build your throne to generation after generation.’” Selah.

 5 And the heavens will laud your marvelous act, O Jehovah,

      Yes, your faithfulness in the congregation of the holy ones.

 6 For who in the skies can be compared to Jehovah?

      Who can resemble Jehovah among the sons of God?

 7 God is to be held in awe among the intimate group of holy ones;

      He is grand and fear-inspiring over all who are round about him.

 8 O Jehovah God of armies,

      Who is vigorous like you, O Jah?

      And your faithfulness is all around you.

 9 You are ruling over the swelling of the sea;

      When it raises up its waves you yourself calm them.

10 You yourself have crushed Rahab, even as someone slain.

       By the arm of your strength you have scattered your enemies.

11 Heaven is yours, the earth also is yours;

       The productive land and what fills it—you yourself have founded them.

12 The north and the south—you yourself created them;

       Tabor and Hermon—in your name they cry out joyfully.

13 An arm with mightiness is yours,

       Your hand is strong,

       Your right hand is exalted.

14 Righteousness and judgment are the established place of your throne;

       Loving-kindness and trueness themselves come in before your face.

15 Happy are the people knowing the joyful shouting.

       O Jehovah, in the light of your face they keep walking.

16 In your name they are joyful all day long

       And in your righteousness they are exalted.

17 For you are the beauty of their strength;

       And by your goodwill our horn is exalted.

18 For our shield belongs to Jehovah,

       And our king belongs to the Holy One of Israel.

19 At that time you spoke in a vision to your loyal ones,

       And you proceeded to say:

       “I have placed help upon a mighty one;

       I have exalted a chosen one from among the people.

20 I have found David my servant;

       With my holy oil I have anointed him,

21 With whom my own hand will be firm,

       Whom my own arm also will strengthen.

22 No enemy will make exactions upon him,

       Neither will any son of unrighteousness afflict him.

23 And from before him I crushed his adversaries to pieces,

       And to those intensely hating him I kept dealing out blows.

24 And my faithfulness and my loving-kindness are with him,

       And in my name his horn is exalted.

25 And on the sea I have put his hand

       And on the rivers his right hand.

26 He himself calls out to me, ‘You are my Father,

       My God and the Rock of my salvation.’

27 Also, I myself shall place him as firstborn,

       The most high of the kings of the earth.

28 To time indefinite I shall preserve my loving-kindness toward him,

       And my covenant will be faithful to him.

29 And I shall certainly set up his seed forever

       And his throne as the days of heaven.

30 If his sons leave my law

       And in my judicial decisions they do not walk,

31 If they profane my own statutes

       And they do not keep my own commandments,

32 I must also turn my attention to their transgression even with a rod

       And to their error even with strokes.

33 But my loving-kindness I shall not break off from him,

       Nor shall I prove false with regard to my faithfulness.

34 I shall not profane my covenant,

       And the expression out of my lips I shall not change.

35 Once I have sworn in my holiness,

       To David I will not tell lies.

36 His seed itself will prove to be even to time indefinite,

       And his throne as the sun in front of me.

37 As the moon it will be firmly established for time indefinite,

       And [as] a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah.

38 But you—you have cast off and you keep contemning;

       You have become furious toward your anointed one.

39 You have spurned the covenant of your servant;

       You have profaned his diadem to the very earth.

40 You have broken down all his stone pens;

       You have laid his fortifications in ruin.

41 All those passing along the way have pillaged him;

       He has become a reproach to his neighbors.

42 You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries;

       You have caused all his enemies to rejoice.

43 What is more, you again treat his sword as a foe,

       And you have caused him not to gain ground in the battle.

44 You have made [him] cease from his luster,

       And his throne you have hurled to the very earth.

45 You have shortened the days of his youth;

       You have enwrapped him with shame. Selah.

46 How long, O Jehovah, will you keep yourself concealed? For all time?

       Will your rage keep on burning just like a fire?

47 Remember of what duration of life I am.

       Is it all in vain that you have created all the sons of men?

48 What able-bodied man is there alive who will not see death?

       Can he provide escape for his soul from the hand of Sheol? Selah.

49 Where are your former acts of loving-kindness, O Jehovah,

       About which you swore to David in your faithfulness?

50 Remember, O Jehovah, the reproach upon your servants,

       My carrying in my bosom [the reproach of] all the many peoples,

51 How your enemies have reproached, O Jehovah,

       How they have reproached the footprints of your anointed one.

52 Blessed be Jehovah to time indefinite. Amen and Amen.