June 25

Psalms 40:1 — 44:26

To the director. Of David, a melody.

40 I earnestly hoped in Jehovah,

    And so he inclined [his ear] to me and heard my cry for help.

 2 He also proceeded to bring me up out of a roaring pit,

      Out of the mire of [the] sediment.

      Then he raised up my feet upon a crag;

      He firmly established my steps.

 3 Further, he put in my mouth a new song,

      Praise to our God.

      Many will see [it] and will fear,

      And they will trust in Jehovah.

 4 Happy is the able-bodied man that has put Jehovah as his trust

      And that has not turned his face to defiant people,

      Nor to those falling away to lies.

 5 Many things you yourself have done,

      O Jehovah my God, even your wonderful works and your thoughts toward us;

      There is none to be compared to you.

      Were I inclined to tell and speak [of them],

      They have become more numerous than I can recount.

 6 Sacrifice and offering you did not delight in;

      These ears of mine you opened up.

      Burnt offering and sin offering you did not ask for.

 7 In view of that, I said: “Here I have come,

      In the roll of the book it being written about me.

 8 To do your will, O my God, I have delighted,

      And your law is within my inward parts.

 9 I have told the good news of righteousness in the big congregation.

      Look! My lips I do not restrain.

      O Jehovah, you yourself know that well.

10 Your righteousness I have not covered over within my heart.

       Your faithfulness and your salvation I have declared.

       I have not hidden your loving-kindness and your trueness in the big congregation.”

11 You yourself, O Jehovah, do not restrain your pity from me.

       Let your loving-kindness and your trueness themselves constantly safeguard me.

12 For calamities encircled me until there was no numbering of them.

       More errors of mine overtook me than I was able to see;

       They became more numerous than the hairs of my head,

       And my own heart left me.

13 Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me.

       O Jehovah, to my assistance do make haste.

14 May those be ashamed and abashed all together

       Who are seeking my soul to sweep it away.

       May those turn back and be humiliated who are delighting in my calamity.

15 Let those stare in amazement in consequence of their shame

       Who are saying to me: “Aha! Aha!”

16 Let those exult and rejoice in you,

       All those who are seeking you.

       Let those say constantly: “May Jehovah be magnified,”

       Those who are loving salvation by you.

17 But I am afflicted and poor.

       Jehovah himself takes account of me.

       You are my assistance and the Provider of escape for me.

       O my God, do not be too late.

To the director. A melody of David.

41 Happy is anyone acting with consideration toward the lowly one;

    In the day of calamity Jehovah will provide escape for him.

 2 Jehovah himself will guard him and preserve him alive.

      He will be pronounced happy in the earth;

      And you cannot possibly give him over to the soul of his enemies.

 3 Jehovah himself will sustain him upon a divan of illness;

      All his bed you will certainly change during his sickness.

 4 As for me, I said: “O Jehovah, show me favor.

      Do heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.”

 5 As for my enemies, they say what is bad concerning me:

       “When will he die and his name actually perish?”

 6 And if one does come to see [me], untruth is what his heart will speak;

      He will gather up for himself something hurtful;

      He will go out; on the outside he will speak [of it].

 7 Unitedly against me all those hating me whisper to one another;

      Against me they keep scheming something bad for me:

 8 “A good-for-nothing thing is poured out upon him;

      Now that he has lain down, he will not get up again.”

 9 Also the man at peace with me, in whom I trusted,

      Who was eating my bread, has magnified [his] heel against me.

10 As for you, O Jehovah, show me favor and cause me to get up,

       That I may pay them back.

11 By this I do know that you have found delight in me,

       Because my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.

12 As for me, because of my integrity you have upheld me,

       And you will set me before your face to time indefinite.

13 Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel

       From time indefinite even to time indefinite.

       Amen and Amen.

BOOK TWO

(Psalms 42 – 72)

To the director. Maskil for the sons of Korah.

42 As the hind that longs for the water streams,

    So my very soul longs for you, O God.

 2 My soul indeed thirsts for God, for the living God.

      When shall I come and appear [before] God?

 3 To me my tears have become food day and night,

      While [they] say to me all day long: “Where is your God?”

 4 These things I will remember, and I will pour out my soul within me.

      For I used to pass along with the throng,

      I used to walk slowly before them to the house of God,

      With the voice of a joyful cry and thanksgiving,

      Of a crowd celebrating a festival.

 5 Why are you in despair, O my soul,

      And why are you boisterous within me?

      Wait for God,

      For I shall yet laud him as the grand salvation of my person.

 6 O my God, within me my very soul is in despair.

      That is why I remember you,

      From the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon,

      From the little mountain.

 7 Watery deep to watery deep is calling

      At the sound of your (water-) spouts.

      All your breakers and your waves—

      Over me they have passed.

 8 By day Jehovah will command his loving-kindness,

      And by night his song will be with me;

      There will be prayer to the God of my life.

 9 I will say to God my crag:

       “Why have you forgotten me?

      Why do I walk sad because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10 With murder against my bones those showing hostility to me have reproached me,

       While they say to me all day long: “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you in despair, O my soul,

       And why are you boisterous within me?

       Wait for God,

       For I shall yet laud him as the grand salvation of my person and as my God.
 

43 Judge me, O God,

    And do conduct my legal case against a nation not loyal.

      From the man of deception and unrighteousness may you provide me with escape.

 2 For you are the God of my fortress.

      Why have you cast me off?

      Why do I walk about sad because of the oppression by the enemy?

 3 Send out your light and your truth.

      May these themselves lead me.

      May they bring me to your holy mountain and to your grand tabernacle.

 4 And I will come to the altar of God,

      To God, my exultant rejoicing.

      And I will laud you on the harp, O God, my God.

 5 Why are you in despair, O my soul,

      And why are you boisterous within me?

      Wait for God,

      For I shall yet laud him as the grand salvation of my person and as my God.

To the director. Of the sons of Korah. Maskil.

44 O God, with our ears we have heard,

    Our forefathers themselves have recounted to us

      The activity that you performed in their days,

      In the days of long ago.

 2 You yourself by your hand drove away even nations,

      And you proceeded to plant them [instead].

      You went breaking national groups and sending them away.

 3 For it was not by their own sword that they took possession of the land,

      And their own arm was not what brought them salvation.

      For it was your right hand and your arm and the light of your face,

      Because you took pleasure in them.

 4 You yourself are my King, O God.

      Command grand salvation for Jacob.

 5 By you we shall push our adversaries themselves;

      In your name we shall tread down those rising up against us.

 6 For it was not in my bow that I kept trusting

      And it was not my sword that was saving me.

 7 For you saved us from our adversaries,

      And those intensely hating us you put to shame.

 8 In God we will offer praise all day long,

      And to time indefinite your name we shall laud. Selah.

 9 But now you have cast off and keep humiliating us,

      And you do not go forth with our armies.

10 You keep making us turn back from the adversary,

       And the very ones intensely hating us have pillaged for themselves.

11 You give us up like sheep, as something to eat,

       And among the nations you have scattered us.

12 You sell your people for no value at all,

      And you have made no wealth by the price for them.

13 You set us as a reproach to our neighbors,

       A derision and jeering to those all around us.

14 You set us as a proverbial saying among the nations,

       A shaking of the head among the national groups.

15 All day long my humiliation is in front of me,

       And the shame of my own face has covered me,

16 Due to the voice of the one reproaching and speaking abusively,

       Because of the enemy and the one taking his revenge.

17 All this is what has come upon us, and we have not forgotten you,

       And we have not acted falsely in your covenant.

18 Our heart has not turned faithlessly back,

       Nor do our footsteps deviate from your path.

19 For you have crushed us in the place of jackals,

       And you cover us over with deep shadow.

20 If we have forgotten the name of our God,

       Or we spread out our palms to a strange god,

21 Will not God himself search this out?

       For he is aware of the secrets of the heart.

22 But for your sake we have been killed all day long;

       We have been accounted as sheep for slaughtering.

23 Do arouse yourself. Why do you keep sleeping, O Jehovah?

       Do awake. Do not keep casting off forever.

24 Why do you keep your very face concealed?

       Why do you forget our affliction and our oppression?

25 For our soul has bowed down to the dust itself;

       Our belly has clung to the very earth.

26 Do arise in assistance to us

       And redeem us for the sake of your loving-kindness.