Psalms 90 - 99
90
Lord, thou hast been our refuge
from generation to generation.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or earth and world were born in travail,
from age to age everlasting thou art God.
Thou turnest man back into dust;
'Turn back,' thou sayest, 'you sons of men';
for in thy sight a thousand years are as yesterday;
a night-watch passes, and thou hast cut them off;
they are like a dream at daybreak,
they fade like grass which springs up with the morning
but when evening comes is parched and withered.
So we are brought to an end by thy anger
and silenced by thy wrath.
Thou dost lay bare our iniquities before thee
and our lusts in the full light of thy presence.
All our days go by under the shadow of thy wrath;
our years die away like a murmur.
Seventy years is the span of our life,
eighty if our strength holds;
the hurrying years are labour and sorrow,
so quickly they pass and are forgotten.
Who feels the power of thy anger,
who feels thy wrath like those that fear thee?
Teach us to order our days rightly,
that we may enter the gate of wisdom.
How long, O LORD?
Relent, and take pity on thy servants.
Satisfy us with thy love when morning breaks,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Repay us days of gladness for our days of suffering,
for the years thou hast humbled us.
Show thy servants thy deeds
and their children thy majesty.
May all delightful things be ours, O Lord our God;
establish firmly all we do.
91
You that live in the shelter of the Most High
and lodge under the shadow of the Almighty,
who say, 'The LORD is my safe retreat,
my God the fastness in which I trust';
he himself will snatch you away
from fowler's snare or raging tempest.
He will cover you with his pinions,
and you shall find safety beneath his wings;
you shall not fear the hunters' trap by night
or the arrow that flies by day,
the pestilence that stalks in darkness
or the plague raging at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand close at hand,
but you it shall not touch;
his truth will be your shield and your rampart.
With your own eyes you shall see all this;
you shall watch the punishment of the wicked.
For you, the LORD is a safe retreat;
you have made the Most High your refuge.
No disaster shall befall you,
no calamity shall come upon your home.
For he has charged his angels
to guard you wherever you go,
to lift you on their hands
for fear you should strike your foot against a stone.
You shall step on asp and cobra,
you shall tread safely on snake and serpent.
Because love is set on me, I will deliver him;
I will lift him beyond danger, for he knows me by my name.
When he calls upon me, I will answer;
I will be with him in time of trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him to honour.
I will satisfy him with long life
to enjoy the fullness of my salvation.
92
O LORD, it is good to give thee thanks,
to sing psalms to thy name, O Most High,
to declare thy love in the morning
and thy constancy every night,
to the music of a ten-stringed lute,
to the sounding chords of the harp.
Thy acts, O LORD, fill me with exultation;
I shout in triumph at thy mighty deeds.
How great are thy deeds, O LORD!
How fathomless thy thoughts!
He who does not know this is a brute,
a fool is he who does not understand this:
that though the wicked grow like grass
and every evildoer prospers,
they will be destroyed for ever.
While thou, LORD, dost reign on high eternally,
thy foes will surely perish,
all evildoers will be scattered.
I lift my head high, like a wild ox tossing its horn;
I am anointed richly with oil.
I gloat over all who speak ill of me,
I listen for the downfall of my cruel foes.
The righteous flourish like a palm-tree,
they grow as tall as a cedar on Lebanon;
planted as they are in the house of the LORD,
they flourish in the courts of our God,
vigorous in old age like trees full of sap,
luxuriant, wide-spreading,
eager to declare that the LORD is just,
the LORD is my rock, in whom there is no unrighteousness.
93
The LORD is king; he is clothed in majesty;
the LORD clothes himself with might and fastens on his belt of wrath.
Thou hast fixed the earth immovable and firm,
thy throne firm from of old;
from all eternity thou art God.
O LORD, the ocean lifts up, the ocean lifts up its clamour;
the ocean lifts up its pounding waves.
The LORD on high is mightier far
than the noise of great waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea.
Thy law stands firm, and holiness is the beauty of thy temple,
while time shall last, O LORD.
94
O LORD, thou God of vengeance,
thou God of vengeance, show thyself.
Rise up, judge of the earth;
punish the arrogant as they deserve.
How log shall the wicked, O LORD,
how long shall the wicked exult?
Evildoers are full of bluster,
boasting and swaggering;
they beat down thy people, O LORD,
and oppress thy chosen nation;
they murder the widow and the stranger
and do the fatherless to death;
they say, 'The LORD does not see,
the God of Jacob pays no heed.
Pay heed to yourselves, most brutish of people;
you fools, hen will you be wise?
Does he that planted the ear not hear,
he that moulded the eye not see?
Shall not he that instructs the nations correct them?
The teacher of mankind, has he no knowledge?
The LORD knows the thoughts of man,
that they are but a puff of wind.
Happy the man whom thou dost instruct, O LORD,
and tech out of thy law,
giving him respite from adversity
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
The LORD will not abandon his people
nor forsake his chosen nation;
for righteousness still in forms his judgement,
and all upright men follow it.
Who is on my side against these sinful men?
Who will stand up for me against these evildoers?
If the LORD had not been my helper,
I should soon have slept in the silent grave.
When I felt that my foot was slipping,
thy love, O LORD, held me up.
Anxious thoughts may fill my heart,
but thy presence is my joy and my consolation.
Shall sanctimonious calumny call thee partner,
or he that contrives a mischief under cover of law?
For they put the righteous on trial for his life
and condemn to death innocent men.
But the LORD has been my strong tower,
and God my rock of refuge;
our God requites he wicked for their injustice,
the LORD puts them to silence for heir misdeeds.
95
Come! Let us raise a joyful song to the LORD,
a shout of triumph to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into our presence with thanksgiving,
and sing him psalms of triumph.
For the LORD is a great God,
a great king over all gods;
the farthest places of he earth are in his hands,
and the folds of the hills are his;
the sea is his, he made it;
the dry land fashioned by his hands is his.
Come! Let us throw ourselves at his feet in homage,
let us kneel before the LORD who made us;
for he is our God,
we are his people, we the flock he shepherds.
You shall know his power today
if you will listen to his voice.
Do not grow stubborn, as you were at Meribah,
as at the time of Massah in the wilderness,
when your forefathers challenged me,
tested me and saw for themselves what I did.
For forty years I was indignant
with that generation, and I said:
They are a people whose hearts are astray,
and they will not discern my ways.
As I swore in my anger:
They shall never enter my rest.
96
Sing a new song to the LORD;
sing to the LORD, all men on earth.
Sing to the LORD and bless his name,
proclaim his triumph day by day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvellous deeds among all peoples.
Great is the LORD and worthy of all praise;
he is more to be feared than all gods.
For the gods of the nations are idols every one;
but the LORD made the heavens.
Majesty and splendour attend him,
might and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Ascribe to te LORD, you families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and might;
ascribe the the LORD the glory due to his name,
bring a gift and come into his courts.
Bow down to the LORD in the splendour of holiness,
and dance in his honour, all men on earth.
Declare among the nations, 'The LORD is king.
He has fixed the earth firm, immovable;
he will judge the peoples justly.'
Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult,
let the sea roar and all the creatures in it,
let the fields exult and all that is in them;
then let all the trees of the forest shout for joy
before the LORD when he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the earth with righteousness
and the peoples in good faith.
97
The LORD is king, let the earth be glad,
let coasts and islands all rejoice.
Cloud and mist enfold him,
righteousness and justice
are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
and burns up his enemies all around.
The world is lit up beneath his lightning-flash;
the earth sees it and writhes in pain
The mountains melt like wax as the LORD approaches,
the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all peoples see his glory.
Let all who worship images, who vaunt their idols,
be put to shame;
bow down, all gods, before him.
Zion heard and rejoiced, the cities of Judah were glad
at thy judgement, O LORD.
For thou, LORD art most high over all the earth,
far exalted above all gods.
The LORD loves those who hate evil;
he keeps his loyal servants safe
and rescues them from the wicked.
A harvest of light is sown for the righteous,
and joy for all good me.
You that are righteous, rejoice in the LORD
and praise his holy name.
98
Sing a new song to the LORD,
for he had done marvelous deeds;
His right hand and holy arm have won him victory.
The LORD has made his victory known;
he has displayed his righteousness to all the nations.
He has remembered his constancy,
is love for the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
Acclaim the LORD, all men on earth,
break into songs of joy, sing psalms.
Sing psalms in the LORD's honour with the harp,
with the harp and with the music of the psaltery.
With trumpet and echoing horn
acclaim the presence of the LORD our king.
Let the sea roar and all its creatures,
the world and those who dwell in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the hills sing aloud together
before the LORD; for he comes
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness
and the peoples in justice.
99
The LORD is king, the peoples are perturbed;
he is throned on the cherubim, earth quivers.
The LORD is great in Zion;
he is exalted above all the peoples.
They extol his name as great and terrible;
he is holy, he is mighty,
a king who loves justice.
Thou hast established justice and equity;
thou hast dealt righteously in Jacob.
Exalt the LORD our God,
bow down before his footstool;
he is holy.
Moses and Aaron among his priests,
and Samuel among those who call on his name ,
called to the LORD, and he answered.
He spoke to them in a pillar of cloud;
they followed his teaching and kept the law he gave them.
Thou, O LORD our God, thou didst answer them;
thou wast a God who forgave all their misdeeds
and held them innocent.
Exalt the LORD our God,
bow down towards his holy hill;
for the LORD our God is holy.
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Jul 3, 2019, 3:33 AM UTC
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