July 15
Psalms 139:1 — 144:15
For the director. Of David. A melody.
139 O Jehovah, you have searched through me, and you know [me].
2 You yourself have come to know my sitting down and my rising up.
You have considered my thought from far off.
3 My journeying and my lying outstretched you have measured off,
And you have become familiar even with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But, look! O Jehovah, you already know it all.
5 Behind and before, you have besieged me;
And you place your hand upon me.
6 [Such] knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is so high up that I cannot attain to it.
7 Where can I go from your spirit,
And where can I run away from your face?
8 If I should ascend to heaven, there you would be;
And if I should spread out my couch in Sheol, look! you [would be there].
9 Were I to take the wings of the dawn,
That I might reside in the most remote sea,
10 There, also, your own hand would lead me
And your right hand would lay hold of me.
11 And were I to say: “Surely darkness itself will hastily seize me!”
Then night would be light about me.
12 Even the darkness itself would not prove too dark for you,
But night itself would shine just as the day does;
The darkness might just as well be the light.
13 For you yourself produced my kidneys;
You kept me screened off in the belly of my mother.
14 I shall laud you because in a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful,
As my soul is very well aware.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
When I was made in secret,
When I was woven in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw even the embryo of me,
And in your book all its parts were down in writing,
As regards the days when they were formed
And there was not yet one among them.
17 So, to me how precious your thoughts are!
O God, how much does the grand sum of them amount to!
18 Were I to try to count them, they are more than even the grains of sand.
I have awaked, and yet I am still with you.
19 O that you, O God, would slay the wicked one!
Then even the bloodguilty men will certainly depart from me,
20 Who say things about you according to [their] idea;
They have taken up [your name] in a worthless way—your adversaries.
21 Do I not hate those who are intensely hating you, O Jehovah,
And do I not feel a loathing for those revolting against you?
22 With a complete hatred I do hate them.
They have become to me real enemies.
23 Search through me, O God, and know my heart.
Examine me, and know my disquieting thoughts,
24 And see whether there is in me any painful way,
And lead me in the way of time indefinite.
For the director. A melody of David.
140 Rescue me, O Jehovah, from bad men;
May you safeguard me even from the man of deeds of violence,
2 Those who have schemed bad things in [their] heart,
Who all day long keep attacking as in wars.
3 They have sharpened their tongue like that of a serpent;
The venom of the horned viper is under their lips. Selah.
4 Keep me, O Jehovah, from the hands of the wicked one;
May you safeguard me even from the man of deeds of violence,
Those who have schemed to push my steps.
5 The self-exalted ones have hidden a trap for me;
And ropes they have spread out as a net at the side of the track.
Snares they have set for me. Selah.
6 I have said to Jehovah: “You are my God.
Do give ear, O Jehovah, to the voice of my entreaties.”
7 O Jehovah the Sovereign Lord, the strength of my salvation,
You have screened over my head in the day of the armed force.
8 Do not grant, O Jehovah, the cravings of the wicked one.
Do not promote his plotting, that they may not be exalted. Selah.
9 As for the heads of those surrounding me,
May the trouble of their own lips cover them.
10 May burning coals be dropped upon them.
Let them be made to fall into the fire, into watery pits, that they may not get up.
11 The big talker—let him not be firmly established in the earth.
T he man of violence—let evil itself hunt him with repeated thrusts.
12 I well know that Jehovah will execute
The legal claim of the afflicted one, the judgment of the poor ones.
13 Surely the righteous themselves will give thanks to your name;
The
upright ones will dwell before your face.
A melody of David.
141 O Jehovah, I have called upon you.
Do make haste to me.
Do give ear to my voice when I call to you.
2 May my prayer be prepared as incense before you,
The raising up of my palms as the evening grain offering.
3 Do set a guard, O Jehovah, for my mouth;
Do set a watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not incline my heart to anything bad,
So as to carry on notorious deeds in wickedness
With men who are practicing what is hurtful,
That I may not feed myself on their dainties.
5 Should the righteous one strike me, it would be a loving-kindness;
And should he reprove me, it would be oil upon the head,
Which my head would not want to refuse.
For still there would be even my prayer during their calamities.
6 Their judges have been thrown down by the sides of the crag,
But they have heard my sayings, that they are pleasant.
7 As when one is doing cleaving and splitting on the earth,
Our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
8 However, my eyes are to you, O Jehovah the Sovereign Lord.
In you I have taken refuge.
Do not pour out my soul.
9 Keep me from the clutches of the trap that they have laid for me
And from the snares of those practicing what is hurtful.
10 The wicked will fall into their own nets all together,
While I, for my part, pass by.
Maskil. Of David, when he happened to be in the cave. A prayer.
142 With my voice, to Jehovah I proceeded to call for aid;
With my voice, to Jehovah I began to cry for favor.
2 Before him I kept pouring out my concern;
Before him I continued to tell about my own distress,
3 When my spirit fainted away within me.
Then you yourself knew my roadway.
In the path in which I walk
They have hidden a trap for me.
4 Look to the right hand and see
That there is no one giving any recognition to me.
My place for flight has perished from me;
There is no one inquiring for my soul.
5 I called to you, O Jehovah, for aid.
I said: “You are my refuge,
My share in the land of the living ones.”
6 Do pay attention to my entreating cry,
For I have become very much impoverished.
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are stronger than I am.
7 Do bring my soul out of the very dungeon
To laud your name.
Around me let the righteous ones gather,
Because you deal appropriately with me.
A melody of David.
143 O Jehovah, hear my prayer;
Do give ear to my entreaty.
In your faithfulness answer me in your righteousness.
2 And do not enter into judgment with your servant;
For before you no one alive can be righteous.
3 For the enemy has pursued my soul;
He has crushed my life to the very earth.
He has caused me to dwell in dark places like those dead for time indefinite.
4 And my spirit faints away within me;
In the midst of me my heart shows itself numbed.
5 I have remembered days of long ago;
I have meditated on all your activity;
I willingly kept myself concerned with the work of your own hands.
6 I have spread out my hands to you;
My soul is like an exhausted land to you. Selah.
7 O hurry, answer me, O Jehovah.
My spirit has come to an end.
Do not conceal your face from me,
Or else I must become comparable with those going down into the pit.
8 In the morning cause me to hear your loving-kindness,
For in you I have put my trust.
Make known to me the way in which I should walk,
For to you I have lifted up my soul.
9 Deliver me from my enemies, O Jehovah.
I have taken cover even with you.
10 Teach me to do your will,
For you are my God.
Your spirit is good;
May it lead me in the land of uprightness.
11 For the sake of your name, O Jehovah, may you preserve me alive.
In your righteousness may you bring forth my soul out of distress.
12 And in your loving-kindness may you silence my enemies;
And you must destroy all those showing hostility to my soul,
For I am your servant.
Of David.
144 Blessed be Jehovah my Rock,
Who is teaching my hands for fighting,
My fingers for warfare;
2 My loving-kindness and my stronghold,
My secure height and my Provider of escape for me,
My shield and the One in whom I have taken refuge,
The One subduing peoples under me.
3 O Jehovah, what is man that you should notice him,
The son of mortal man that you should take account of him?
4 Man himself bears resemblance to a mere exhalation;
His days are like a passing shadow.
5 O Jehovah, bend down your heavens that you may descend;
Touch the mountains that they may smoke.
6 Lighten with lightning that you may scatter them;
Send out your arrows that you may throw them into confusion.
7 Thrust your hands out from the height;
Set me free and deliver me from the many waters,
From the hand of the foreigners,
8 Whose mouth has spoken what is untrue
And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9 O God, a new song I will sing to you.
On an instrument of ten strings I will make melody to you,
10 The One giving salvation to kings,
The One setting David his servant free from the injurious sword.
11 Set me free and deliver me from the hand of the foreigners,
Whose mouth has spoken what is untrue
And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood,
12 Who [say]: “Our sons are like little plants grown up in their youth,
Our daughters like corners carved in palace style,
13 Our garners full, furnishing products of one sort after another,
Our flocks multiplying by thousands, ten thousand to one, in our streets,
14 Our cattle loaded down, without any rupture and with no abortion,
And with no outcry in our public squares.
15 Happy is the people for whom it is just like [that]!”
Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah!