THE PSALMS - BOOKS III - V
Book III Psalms 73-89
1: I cried unto God in a loud, desp’rate voice,
And he listened to me, gave me cause to rejoice.
2: In the day of my trouble I went running to God,
All night long begged for mercy for my soul that was flawed.
All night long I would cry refusing all solace,
As I wait for God’s answer, a sign, or a promise.
A song of Asaph
1. We give thanks to you God for your wonderful deeds
For that shows you’re among us and your love never sleeps.
2. “I SHALL JUDGE ALL UPRIGHTLY IN MY GIVEN HOUR!
3. THE EARTH AND ALL LIFE, I’LL DISSOLVE WITH MY POWER!
4. I SAID TO THE FOOLISH, DON’T BE SO EMPTY!
AND I SAID TO THE WICKED, DON’T RELY ON YOUR PLENTY!
5. DON’T BE PROUD OF YOUR RICHES, AND DON’T HARDEN YOUR HEART!
FOR THE MORE YOU ARE FILLED WITH PRIDE IN YOUR HEART,
THE MORE IS THE DISTANCE THAT DRIVES US APART!”
6. Your blessings don’t come from earthly direction,
7. But rather from God, at his sole discretion.
He lifts up one person and lowers another;
He raises one brother and casts down the other.
8. In the day of his judgment when all is fulfilled;
The wicked will see and their hearts will be chilled.
9. But I’ll praise his judgement and forever declare,
That his judgment is righteous and his mercy is fair.
10. “ALL THE POW’R OF THE WICKED I WILL ASSAULT,
BUT THE POW’R OF THE RIGHTEOUS I WILL EXALT”!
A psalm of Asaph
1. I cried unto God in a loud, desp’rate voice,
And he listened to me, gave me cause to rejoice.
2. In the day of my trouble I went running to God,
All night long begged for mercy for my soul that was flawed.
All night long I would cry refusing all solace,
As I wait for God’s answer, a sign, or a promise.
3. Yes I turned to God, but still I was troubled,
For all of my woes seemed to be redoubled…
4. As I cry through the night you keep me awake;
I am so overwhelmed that no sense do I make.
5. I think of the past, of days long ago,
6. When my prayers were happy and I felt a warm glow…
I was one with my heart and was one with my soul,
As I sought you in prayer, and you kept me whole.
7. Will you shun me forever? Will you hear me no more?
8. Are his promise and mercy gone forevermore?
9. Has God forgotten, how to treat us with grace?
Is his anger so great, that he’s hidden his face…?
10. So I said to myself, “I am surely disabled:
Yet I clearly recall when God had me enabled.”
11. I will always remember the works of the Lord;
I will never forget your wonders of old.
12. I’ll recall all your works in my meditations;
And your name I will spread throughout all of the nations.
13. In your sanctuary Lord, we find you and your ways:
There is none who is great as our God whom we praise.
14. You are the God who performs such great wonders:
You declare your might with lightnings and thunders.
15. You have redeemed, with your arm, all your faithful;
As descendants of Joseph and Jacob, we are grateful…
16. The waters saw you Lord, and in fear they parted;
17. The clouds loosed their waters, and the roaring storm started:
With lightning, like arrows, crisscrossing the skies.
All of creation his power recognize.
18. The voice of your thunder in Heaven was heard,
The world was made bright, when your lightning occurred.
God’s voice made the earth to tremble and shake,
As he opened a path for his people to take.
19. The path that you opened was into the sea;
They would walk through deep waters and they would be free.
20. By Moses and Aaron your people you led,
Like a flock of sheep; as you walked on ahead.
A psalm of Asaph
1. Oh Lord the heathen have entered our nation,
They’ve defiled the temple of the God of creation.
Once thriving Jerus’lem is reduced to a heap
As it’s people in anguish cry out and weep.
2. Your saints have been slaughtered their lives of no worth
They are food for the birds and the beasts of the earth:
3. Jerusalem’s watered by their blood that was shed
And no one is left to bury its dead.
4. We have become a warning to all,
As our neighbors deride us because of our fall.
5. How long will your anger continue to burn?
Will you never forgive us? Will you never return?
6. Lord pour out your wrath upon those who don’t know you,
On those nations and kingdoms who your name don’t pursue.
7. For they’ve mangled your people, pursued them to death,
Laid waste to their homes, and took their last breath.
8. Oh Lord do not hold our old sins against us,
For we won’t survive this if you punish us thus.
Oh Lord let your mercy keep us from destruction,
For we are brought low through our own construction.
9. Help us oh God of our salvation,
For the sake of your glory deliver your nation.
For the sake of your name erase all our sin,
Give us a pure heart, a new life to begin.
10. For why should the heathen say, “Where is their God?”
Let them know you are with us, even though we are flawed.
Pay them back for our blood which they joyfully shed,
Pay them back with a vengeance for the lives of our dead.
11. Let our sighs and our groans from our prisons ascend
Reach your ears in heaven; let your mercy descend.
Lord please save your people appointed to die,
For your power is great, which no one can deny.
12. Return to our foes, their hate seven-fold
For their harsh words against you; for all to behold.
13. So that we, your people, the wealth of your heart,
Will thank you forever, from your side never part.
To all generations we will teach them to praise,
So they will cleave to you all of their days.
A Psalm of Asaph
1. Sing loud and with joy to the Good of our might,
To the mighty of Jacob who held him upright.
2. Write him a poem and give it a beat,
Add some strings and some wind, make a sound that is sweet.
3. When the new moon arises, fat and round in the sky,
Blow strong the trumpet, send your sound up high.
Call all the people to God’s altar for prayer,
Let the trumpet’s sweet notes fill the night air.
4. For the day of the new moon is for prayer and feasting,
It’s a law for God’s people; a law everlasting.
5. This law started in Egypt with Joseph his servant,
Who through all of his suffering remained firm and observant.
In the midst of a language he did not understand,
He walked with his God, and obeyed his command.
6. “I REMOVED FROM HIS SHOULDERS HIS OPPRESSION, HIS BURDEN;
FREED HIS HANDS FROM THEIR TOIL, HIS SALVATION MADE CERTAIN.”
7. “YOU CALLED IN YOUR TROUBLE AND YOUR LIFE I DELIVERED;
I RESCUED YOUR SOUL AS IT SHRUNK AND IT SHRIVELLED!
FROM MY SECRET PLACE, WHERE I STORE MY THUNDER,
I ANSWERED YOUR PRAYER TORE YOUR TROUBLES ASUNDER!
FROM THE ROCK AT MERIBAH I CAUSED WATER TO FLOW;
TO PROVE MYSELF TO YOU, SO YOUR GOD YOU WOULD KNOW…”
8. “HEAR OH MY PEOPLE AND I’LL WITNESS TO YOU!
IF YOU LISTEN TO ME, YOU WILL KNOW WHAT TO DO;”
9. “HAVE NO OTHER GOD IN YOUR MIDST, BESIDES ME;
DON’T WORSHIP ANOTHER, DON’T FALL ON YOUR KNEE.”
10. “I AM YOUR GOD! I AM YOUR LORD;
WHO BROUGHT YOU FROM EGYPT, AND I GAVE YOU MY WORD!
OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND I WILL PROVIDE,
YOU WILL NEVER GO HUNGRY IF YOU STAY BY MY SIDE.”
11. “BUT THEY WOULD NOT HEED THE SOUND OF MY VOICE,
AND WANDERED AWAY WHEN GIVEN THE CHOICE.”
12. “SO I LET THEM FOLLOW THEIR OWN STUBBORN HEART;
I GAVE THEM THEIR FREEDOM FROM MY WAY TO DEPART.”
13. “IF ONLY MY PEOPLE WOULD LISTEN TO ME,
WOULD WALK IN MY WAYS AND FROM EVIL BE FREE.”
14. “I WOULD SUBDUE THEIR EN’MIES, AND STRIKE DOWN ALL THEIR FOES,
AND ON ALL OF THEIR ENEMIES, MY WILL WOULD IMPOSE.”
15. But many are those who won’t truly commit,
Have no love for the Lord and are wont to submit.
16. When if only they had, they’d be blessed in their land,
And have great satisfaction as he fed them by hand.
A psalm of Asaph
1. Don’t be silent oh God, don’t hold back, don’t be still;
2. For loud are your foes as their hate they fulfill.
3. They discuss evil plans against those who adore you,
When your people stay hidden, they make plans to pursue.
4. They rally against us and wish us damnation,
They scream out: “Erase them! Wipe them out as a nation!
Let the mem’ry of Isr’el be wiped out forever!
Do not leave a shred! Not a trace whatsoever!”
5. These men of bad faith have conspired against you;
They have formed an alliance your great name to undo.
6;7. Ten nations are joined in alliance against you;
They have vowed our destruction and our end to pursue:
The warriors of Edom, of Moab, and Ishmael;
And those of Ha-ger-nes, and Gebal, and Ammon;
The philistine warriors and those of Amalek;
8. Assur, and Holpen, and the children of Lot;
With the dwellers of Tyre, all have joined this alliance
To stand against you in evil defiance.
9. Lord do unto them as you did with all others’
Who rose up to destroy our people, our fathers:
The people of Midian; Sisera; and Jabin,
By the river called Kison where your power was seen:
10. As you did at Endor where our enemies perished,
Became food for the earth, and kept it well nourished.
11. Make their leaders be cursed like Oreb and Zeeb;
Like Zalmunna and Zebah; whom you cast to the deep:
12. Who said: “Let us take over God’s house to possess,”
13. But instead they were scattered in utter distress.
14. As relentless as fire that burns up dry wood,
And lights up the mountains where great forests have stood;
15. So too be relentless in attacking this evil,
with great storms and with tempests fill them with upheaval.
16. Fill their faces with shame Lord, fill them up with remorse;
That they may turn to you, and from evil divorce.
17. Let them be confused and forever be troubled,
Don’t let them survive, make their shame be redoubled.
18. So everyone knows only you are JEHOVAH!
That you are the most high and your name is forever!
A psalm for the sons of Korah
1. Oh Lord, you’ve been gracious to Isr’el your land
But again we are captive, given up by your hand.
2. The sins of your people you’ve covered, forgiven;
Your mercy is great and it is freely given…
3. You have turned back your wrath, and your anger’s dissolved;
Your anger’s abated, from our sins we’re absolved.
4. Turn us once again, from our sinful ways,
Lift your anger from on us, hear my soul as it prays.
5. Will your anger against us forever go on?
Spanning through generations to those yet unborn.
6. Will you not revive us, give us a new start?
So in you we’ll rejoice, no longer apart.
7. Show us your mercy, grant us your salvation;
For we are your children, your people, your nation.
8. Lord I’m done, I’m exhausted, I am eager to hear;
The words that you speak, and place in my ear.
Words of peace to your people and all of your saints;
Words that give us salvation without any constraints.
Oh Lord give us wisdom to value your grace:
Not to harden our hearts, and from sin turn our face.
9. Surely those who obey you will obtain their salvation
So your glory may always be found in our nation.
10. In you mercy and truth are joined together;
Peace and uprightness are at peace altogether.
11. From out of the earth, truth will spring out;
And from heaven, God’s grace, will cover throughout.
12. God’s mighty blessing shall upon us be poured;
The abundance so much, it cannot be stored.
13. Wherever God’s found, his wisdom precedes him;
It will light up his path, with a light that won’t dim.
So that all who are near him can follow his ways,
From the day of their birth, ‘till the end of their days.
A song for the sons of Korah
1. In the hills of Jerusalem is God’s foundation,
Where his temple stands for Israel’s Salvation;
Where the rites of redemption, were ordered and followed;
Where Melchizedek ruled on ground that was hallowed;
Where King David settled, as the head of God’s nation,
Where Solomon worshiped the God of creation.
2. Just the gates of Jeru’slem are more precious than any
Of the dwellings of Jacob, of which there are many.
3. Of this city of God great things have been spoken,
Where the promise of God, has never been broken.
4. “MY NAME WILL BE SPOKEN IN EGYPT AND BAB’LON;
IN THE NATION OF TYRE, WHICH SOMEDAY WILL BE GONE;
EVEN THOSE IN PHILISTIA MY NAME WILL ADORN…
AS WILL THOSE IN ETHIOPIA, WHERE THIS MAN WAS BORN!/ ”
5. All those who love God, will be part of God’s city,
It shall be their right, and not out of pity.
6. They shall be considered as having been born there,
When God does his census and his people declare.
7. All the makers of music and all those who sing,
Shall be found among them, as their praises they bring:
For all of your blessings have sustained us since birth,
Like a fresh water spring from the depth of the earth.
2. Emphasis mine, because I was born in Ethiopia. I do realize that the message of the poem is that all who accept God, no matter where they are born, become citizens of Jerusalem, and it refers to being born there, as being spiritually born in Jerusalem. However I see it also as a wink to me from God, from thousands of years ago, as an inside humour. Or more appropriately as an Ethiopian “Wax and Gold”.
A Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
1. I will sing of your mercies to all people and nations;
Forever I’ll speak to all generations:
Of how you are faithful to your people and nations;
This my mouth will speak to all generations.
2. For I told all who’d listen that your mercy is built:
Brick by brick from foundation and will cover all guilt.
That your mercy is constant and it is forever
Your faithfulness lasting, and it will not fail ever.
3. For this is what God tells all who will heed,
To all who will listen, this he has decreed:
“I HAVE ENTERED A COVENANT WITH ALL OF MY CHOSEN
I HAVE SWORN UNTO DAVID, THESE WORDS I HAVE SPOKEN:
4. ‘YOUR SEED I’LL ESTABLISH THROUGHOUT ALL GENERATIONS
YOUR THRONE IS FOREVER, I HAVE SET ITS FOUNDATIONS…’”
5. The heavens shall praise your wonders oh Lord,
Your saints will attest to the trust of your word.
6. For who in heaven can compare unto you?
Who among all the mighty can be likened to you?
7. For God’s held in awe by all persons of worth,
He is greatly revered by the saints of this earth.
8. There is none that compares to your might oh my Lord,
None as faithful as you, who is true to his word.
9. The wild, raging seas calm upon your command,
The towering waves you lay flat as the sand.
10. That monster named Rahab you have broken and battered,
And all of your en’mies with your arm you have scattered.
11. The heavens are yours, and so is the earth
This whole world you have founded, with your word and your breath.
12. All things you created from the north to the south,
All life you created by the breath from your mouth.
Mounts Tabor and Hermon, in your name will rejoice’
In awe they will stand, give you praise with one voice.
13. Your arm is almighty and strong is your hand,
Your right hand never flags as it covers your land.
14. True justice and judgement are the marks of your throne,
While your truth and your mercy by all peoples are known.
15. Bless-ed are those who heed to your voice
For they walk in your light, having made you their choice.
16. All day long they’ll rejoice in the pow’r of your name;
Your righteousness lifts them as its goodness they claim.
17. For you are their strength and you are their glory:
And your name will be praised as we tell your story.
18. For the Lord’s our defender, he is our shield;
He is our King, in whom we are sealed.
19. Then you spoke to Samuel, you gave him a vision:
“I HAVE CHOSEN A STRONG MAN, I HAVE MADE MY DECISION;
20. I! HAVE! CHOSEN! DAVID! HIS HEAD I’VE ANOINTED!
21. THROUGH HIM I SHALL GUIDE YOU, FOR HE IS MY APPOINTED!
22. HE SHALL ALWAYS HAVE VICT’RY OVER HIS FOES;
ON HIS HEAD NO AFFLICTION WILL THEY EVER IMPOSE!
23. I WILL STRIKE DOWN HIS ENEMIES IN FRONT OF HIS FACE;
AND ALL THOSE WHO HATE HIM, MY PLAGUES THEY WILL FACE.
24. BUT MY MERCY AND FAITHFULNESS, ALWAYS ARE WITH HIM,
IN MY NAME HE SHALL BE EXALTED FOREVER AND THE FLAME OF HIS GLORY SHALL NEVER GROW DIM!
25. I WILL GIVE HIM DOMINION OVER RIVERS AND SEAS!
I SHALL MAKE HIM THE RULER OVER ALL THAT HE SEES!
26. HE SHALL CRY OUT TO ME ‘YOU’RE MY GOD! YOU’RE MY FATHER!
MY ROCK OF SALVATION! NEXT TO YOU THERE’S NO OTHER!’
27. I SHALL MAKE HIM MY FIRSTBORN! OVER ALL KINGS OF EARTH.
28. MY MERCY AND COVENANT I HAVE SEALED INSIDE HIM, FROM HIS DAY OF CONCEPTION, FROM THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH.
29. HIS DESCENDANTS AND THRONE, I’LL FOREVER SECURE;
FOR AS LONG AS THE HEAVENS SHALL LAST AND ENDURE.
30. IF HIS CHILDREN FORSAKE, MY LAWS AND MY JUDGEMENTS;
31. IF THEY TRAMPLE MY STATUTES, AND KEEP NOT MY COMMANDMENTS;
32. THEN MY HAND WILL FALL ON THEM AND THEY WILL FEEL MY WRATH;
FOR THEY WILL HAVE CHOSEN A DARK, EVIL PATH.
33. EVEN SO I WILL NOT COMPLETELY FORSAKE THEM,
I WILL REMAIN FAITHFUL, AND I WILL NOT CONDEMN.
34. I WILL NOT BREAK MY COVENANT, I WON’T TAKE BACK MY WORD;
35. FOR I HAVE SWORN TO DAVID THE OATH THAT HE HEARD:
36. THAT HIS SEED SHALL ENDURE IN MY SIGHT FOREVER;
AND HIS THRONE, LIKE THE SUN, WILL BE BRIGHT NOW AND EVER;
37. THEY SHALL BE ESTABLISHED AND BE PLANTED FOREVER;
LIKE THE MOON IN THE HEAVENS THEY WON’T MOVE WHATSOEVER.”
38. But you failed on this promise, he is left on his own;
Your anointed is falling, he is losing his throne.
You are wroth with your chosen, whom you have anointed,
39. You have voided the covenant, which you had appointed.
You’ve defiled his crown, cast it down on the ground;
40. You’ve destroyed his defenses, his barriers are downed.
41. All who pass by his kingdom plunder him without fear;
His neighbors reproach him their contempt is quite clear.
42. All his foes rejoice, for you’ve strength-end their hand;
Which they’ve stretched out against him, as his fall they demand.
43. In the midst of his battles, he’s unable to stand;
He is slain by his weapon, snatched out of his hand.
44. His glory’s extinguished, and his throne is cast down;
His head no more adorned, by your golden crown.
45. The days of his strength, his youth, and his power;
By your hands have been taken, you have shortened his hour.
46. For how long Lord your wrath shall burn us like fires?
For how long will you hide, from the sound of our prayers?
47. Remember oh Lord, what a short time we live:
All your love will be vain, lest our sins you forgive.
48. For what persons can live and avoid their own death?
What person can bring back, once it’s gone, their own breath…?
49. Lord where is the love and the kindness you swore?
To King David your anointed, on whom blessings you pour?
50. Lord pay heed to the sorrow of the man you once claimed;
For I can’t bear to see all your mighty men shamed.
51. Lord these are your enemies that are shaming your nation…
Who relentlessly dog our whole population.
52. Lord forever be blessed, again and again,
Blessed be your name, Amen and Amen!
A psalm of Asaph
1. In Judah is God known, and in Israel tower his names.
2. In Salem stands his altar, and in Zion his dwelling he claims.
3. For there he broke their weapons, and he crumbled the defense,
Of the enemies of his people as they fought them face to face.
4. You God are more glorious than the beauty of wild mountains,
Than the beauty of the meadows that are watered by your fountains.
5. Where the brave of heart were vanquished, lost their city and were plundered;
Lost the cunning of their hands and to death they were surrendered.
6. The enemy stood frozen at the sound of your command,
Fell into a stupor, could not even lift his hand.
7. Oh Lord my God you’re to be feared, before you who can stand?
For once you’re stirred to anger, who can stop your mighty hand.
8. From the heavens you sent judgement, and the world stood still and fearful;
9. When you rose up to deliver the oppressed from bondage awful…
10. Even those who stood against you, for your judgement will have praise;
And the rest shall learn the lesson of your power and your grace.
12. He shall cut the power of princes and for kings have no respect,
For they failed to serve his people, and the wretched to protect.
A meditation of Asaph
1. Take heed oh my people to the words of God’s law.
Hear the wisdom inside them, let your soul fill with awe.
2. I will teach you with stories with the wax and the gold/ ,
I will teach you in riddles that your forefathers told:
3. What we’ve known all our lives, as told by our fathers.
We too shall pass on to our sons and our daughters.
4. Yes we too shall pass on to the next generation,
This wisdom passed on from the time of creation.
We will show to the future, God’s deeds and his might,
So forever they’ll praise him, and live in his light.
5. For he gave us his laws, and commanded our fathers,
To teach our children: our sons and our daughters;
6. So his words will be passed through all generations,
To those not yet born, to all peoples and nations.
7. So in God they will rest, and will never forget,
To keep all his commandments, their hopes in him set.
8. So that unlike their fathers they won’t rebel and stray,
Who despite all he’s done, have forsaken his way.
9. God armed his people, so their foes they could fight,
But the day of the battle they lost heart and took flight.
10. For they had refused to walk in his way,
To live in his covenant, his laws to obey.
11; 12. They forgot what he’d shown them, all the wonders he’d done,
The vict’ries in Egypt which their fathers had won.
13. He split open the seas, stood the waters like walls,
As their fathers walked through, as though through waterfalls.
14. In a pillar of cloud he led them by day,
While a pillar of fire, at night lit their way.
15. He burst open the rock and brought forth cool, sweet, waters;
To cool the parched throats of his sons and his daughters.
16. The rocks opened up upon his command
And rivers came out to water the land.
17. And yet despite this, despite all that he did;
Our fathers forsook him and against him they sinned.
18. They spoke crudely to God, and asked him for meat:
19: “Can you set us a table with good meat to eat?”
20. “True, he struck the rock and water gushed out;
But what about meat, can he bring that about?”
21. God heard all of this and stood disappointed;
He was angered by Isra’l who had been his anointed.
22. For God they rejected, trusted not his salvation:
Despite all that he’d done for their people and nation.
23. Even though he’d commanded the clouds from above;
And opened the heavens to pour out his love,
24. As he rained down Manna for his children to eat;
The substance of heaven with goodness replete.
25. So his people could eat, what his angels did eat,
He held nothing back as he gave them this meat.
26. He ordered the east wind to stir up the skies,
So too from the south he made the wind rise.
27. Like the dust of the desert, he rained quail in their land,
As many in number as the grains of the sand.
28; 29. All of these birds, fell within easy reach,
As the Lord in his anger filled the belly of each.
For this they had asked for, this had been their desire;
As the lust burned within them like a hot, searing, fire.
30. Yet even before their hunger was sated,
With the meat in their mouths their desire unabated.
31. The anger of God descended upon them,
Striking all who had eaten, by their lust to condemn.
32. But despite all of this they continued in sin,
They doubted his works, all the wonders they’d seen.
33. Therefore their efforts were empty and futile,
They lived all their lives in fear most brutal.
34. Only when he chastised them, and he let them die,
Did they turn back to him with a loud anguished cry.
35. They remembered that God was their Rock and their Savior,
But still deep within them nothing changed their behavior.
36. With their words they’d praise God, but their hearts always lied,
37. They rejected his love, pushed his covenant aside.
38. But God being full of grace and compassion,
Forgave them their sins, and turned back their destruction.
Yes many’s the time that he turned back his wrath,
When his people sinned greatly, and turned from his path.
39. For he always remembered that they are but mere mortals
They are here for a moment then pass through death’s great portals.
They pass through like the wind in the blink of an eye,
Never to return never to come by.
40. How many times in their march through the wild
In the hot barren desert God’s word they defiled
Provoked him to anger and pushed him to grief
As they trampled his mercy with their disbelief?
41. They turned their backs on him and tempted his wrath,
They wounded him gravely as they strayed from his path.
42. They always forgot the great things he had done
When he saved them from Egypt and their freedom he won.
43. They forgot how in Egypt he had shown them great signs,
As his hand punished Pharaoh to bring forth his designs.
44. Turned the Nile to blood and filled it with stench,
Its life giving waters their thirst could not quench.
45. He sent flies in among them, as thick as thick smoke,
And frogs by the thousands, their panic to stoke.
46. He sent insects and locusts their crops to devour,
47. With hail he destroyed every vineyard and flower
48. With this same hail he destroyed all of their cattle,
With thunder and lightning destroyed all their flock, as though waging a war, as though fighting a battle.
49. He sent trouble among them, he sent angels of death,
To sow terror among them and to slay with their breath.
50. He unleashed all his anger he reserved no restraint,
He allowed plagues to kill them without any constraint.
51. He struck all the firstborns with the spirit of death,
The first sons of Egypt, he throttled their breath.
52. But he led his own people, untouched and unharmed,
Into the desert, with no plan and unarmed.
53. He led them in safety and they had no fear,
As they watched their tormentors in the sea disappear.
54. He brought them in safety to the edge of their land,
The land he prepared by his own mighty hand.
55. And as they advanced he cast out of the land,
the heathens that dwelt there, who against them did stand.
56. Yet despite all of this his people still doubted,
His laws and commandments with abandon they flouted.
57. Like their stiff-necked fathers, they turned back, were unfaithful;
Like a misfired arrow, their heart was deceitful.
58. They provoked him to anger and made the Lord jealous,
As they worshiped their idols in a manner so zealous.
59. When God saw all this, he was sore disappointed,
He was wroth with his people, with his own, his anointed;
60. So much so, he abandoned his place among men,
Forsaking his altar, so they could learn again,
61. He delivered his Isra’l to hardship and bondage,
To be held by the en’my as a slave and a hostage.
62. He let them be punished by fire and sword,
As his hot, burning, anger upon them was poured;
63. By the fire and the sword, their young men were felled,
No betrothals or weddings for their maidens were held.
64. By the fire and the sword their priests were all felled,
Their widows not mourning as no funeral was held.
65. Then one day without warning the Lord turned around,
With a furious shout like a drunk-man unbound
66. He fearlessly roared and struck down his foes
Their shame was forever as he put them to blows.
67. And when he returned, upon Judah God smiled,
But with Joseph and Ephraim he was not reconciled.
68. So he set up his altar in Judah’s encampment
And on top of Mount Zion he made his allotment.
69. His magnificent altar was a palace most mighty
That would last forever blessed by the Almighty.
70. To lead his great people God chose David, a shepherd;
71. Who found favor with God, tending sheep in the desert.
72. Who then guided his people with the skill of his hands,
And a good upright heart, following God’s commands.
A psalm of Asaph
1. Take heed oh God, caretaker of Is-r’el who leads like a shepherd his flock
Shine forth you who dwell ‘tween the wings of your angels and watches his own like a hawk.
2. Before we on our own, go to fight in despair, won’t you gather your might and come save us?
3. Turn us back from our sins and smile upon us, for then nothing on earth can destroy us.
4. How much longer oh God, will you anger against them, and all of their prayers fall short?
How long will you shun them, and leave them in darkness, as all of their plans you abort.
5. With tears you’ve replaced their water and bread; your people are drowning in sorrow,
6. We are constantly fighting with the nations around us: all day long and again on the morrow.
But today we’re defeated, we are shamed, we are broken, we are fallen and we are in pain,
And our enemies laugh, they are gleeful and merry, for their joy they cannot contain.
7. But it isn’t too late, oh God of our fathers; turn us back from the way we behaved;
Restore us oh God, put us back on your path, smile upon us and we shall be saved.
8. You have carried us out like a vine out of Egypt, to a land where you drove out the nations;
You planted us there, where you watered and fed us, where we thrived beyond all expectations.
9. For you tended the ground, and made room for our roots, so we filled up the land and we flourished;
10. We covered the hills, our stalks strong and mighty, by your hand we were cared for and nourished.
11. And we spread through the rivers to the edge of the sea, through your care we grew strong and we flourished;
12. Then why have you neglected your people, your vineyard;
So that all who pass by take its fruit?
13. The boar from the forest, all the beasts from the fields, eat its bounty, and your vineyard uproot;
14. Return oh our God; come back we beseech you; come back and care for your vine;
15. This vine that you planted, and by your hand defended, which you branded and said: “THIS IS MINE!”
16. For now it’s cut down, and has been scorched with fire, because of your anger so great…and…
17. Oh God let your might be returned to your people, these same people you made by your hand;
18. Once you do that oh God, we will not go back, in your name beside you we’ll stand.
19. Turn us back from our sins God, and smile upon us,
For then nothing on earth can destroy us.
A psalm of Asaph
1. In the midst of the judges that he has anointed,
That he has commissioned, that he has appointed,
He rises in anger and makes his pronouncement,
He judges his judges, with his words of denouncement.
2. How long will your judgments be unfair and corrupt,
As they favor the wicked and God’s justice disrupt…
3. You ought to give justice to the orphans, the poor:
For the weak and the needy you must justice secure.
4. From the hands of the wicked deliver the needy,
Let your judgment be fair and let it be speedy.
5. Of these judges God says, they lack understanding,
They have none of God’s light on the path they are walking:
For your judgments destroy the soul of the nation
They spread rot and decay throughout all of creation.
6. “I GAVE YOU MY SEAL SO MY PEOPLE YOU’D LEAD;
GAVE YOU POWER LIKE GODS, FROM ON HIGH I DECREED.
7. IN THE END THOUGH YOU’RE MORTALS AND LIKE MORTALS YOU’LL DIE,
FOR EVEN THE PRINCES THEIR OWN DEATH CAN’T DEFY.”
8. Arise oh Lord, and judge all your creations!
For to you belong all people’s and nations.
A psalm for the sons of Korah
1. How lovely is your house oh God, how exquisite its soul;
2. My own soul faints with longing if I’m long outside your door.
For the living God of heaven, my heart and body ache,
My bones strain at their joints, as they tremble and they shake.
3. Even birds such as the sparrows, in your house they build their nest;
They entrust to you their fledglings, and in confidence they rest.
4. Bless-ed are those who have chosen, to dwell near you by your altar,
For their praises will be constant, and their gratitude wont falter…
5. Bless’d are they whose strength is in you, for they’ll always find their way;
Even when they go through darkness, in the middle of the day.
When the sum of all their hardships is so heavy they can’t bear…
God will still be with them always, and provide them with his care.
He will mend their broken spirit, with his own hands he’ll repair…
7. He’ll refill their strength and vigor as they trudge from prayer to prayer.
8. This then is my song oh Lord: that you always hear my prayer;
God of Jacob and of Joseph, by my side be everywhere…
9. Watch and keep us God our father, our sword, and our shield,
Shine your face on all your people, never from us be concealed.
10. Even one day in your presence is worth thousands more of others:
Worth the sum of all the ages…of the days of my forefathers:
I would rather serve my Maker as a servant at his gate,
Than to share their tents with evil, share with them their grand estate.
11. For the Lord my God, my Maker, is the sun and is the shield,
For the welfare of his people, for all who in him are sealed.
He gives grace and he gives glory to all those who walk uprightly:
To all those who trust and love him and through everything cling tightly.
12. Oh my Lord, my God almighty, blessed is your precious child;
Who trusts in you as no other, and on whom you’re grace has smiled.
A prayer of David
1. Bend your ear to my lips Lord, hear my poor wretched cries;
2. Save my soul for it’s holy, on your grace it relies.
3. As I cry to you daily oh Lord show me your grace,
4. Give joy to my soul, and your servant embrace.
For to you Lord my soul, lifts up its voice,
And in you Lord my soul, finds cause to rejoice.
5. For you oh my Lord, are good and forgiving;
Of your grace and your mercy, you’re abundantly giving.
6. Oh Lord give ear, to all of my prayers,
Give voice to the silent, despair of my tears.
7. In the day of my trouble, I will call on your name;
For I know you will answer, you won’t put me to shame.
8. There is no God but you God, none can do what you do…
All the nations you’ve founded your name shall pursue.
10. For you God are great, you do won-de-rous things,
You alone God are God, to whom bow all the kings.
11. Teach me your ways from the days of my youth,
So we can be one, and I’ll walk in your truth.
12. I will praise your name Lord, with all of my heart;
And your name from my heart shall never depart.
13. For great is the mercy you’ve bestowed unto me,
You have saved me from hell, which I shall never see.
14. The proud and the wicked, rise at me like a snake;
Vi’lent men who abhor you, my soul seek to take.
15. But you oh Lord, are a God of compassion,
Of long suffering grace to your people and nation.
16. Lord turn unto me and show me your grace,
Give strength to your servant, and show me your face.
17. Mark me, oh my Lord, with your sign or your token,
So all those who hate me, see your promise unbroken:
That you Lord are with me, will help and console me;
So that they may be shamed, and to you bend their knee.
A song for the sons of Korah to the Chief musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.
1. Oh God of my fathers, God of my salvation;
Night and day I cry to you, Oh God of creation:
2. Incline your ear to me, let it hear my deep cries,
Let my prayer come near you, dry the tears in my eyes.
3. For my soul’s full of troubles and my life’s near its grave,
I am counted among those that death will enslave:
4. As it drags me towards the dark pit of death,
I have no strength to fight it, as it tugs at my breath:
5. Aimlessly I wander amongst those who are dead,
Like those who are slain, my grave is my bed.
Like those whom you’ve forgotten and remember no more:
Who are cut off from you and are lost evermore.
6. You have cast me into a dark and deep pit,
7. And your anger against me won’t let me acquit…
8. All those who know me my presence avoid,
I am scorned and abhorred and my soul is destroyed.
9. I’m so filled with affliction my eyes can’t stop mourning,
As I call on you daily from the break of the morning.
10. Help me now oh my Lord, while I still have breath
For I can’t imagine what lies beyond death…:
Will you show wonders to those who are dead?
Will they give thanks from the grave that’s their bed?
11. Will your love and your kindness extend to the grave?
And from threat of destruction will your faithfulness save?
12. In the darkness of death can your wonders be known?
Where all is forgotten, is your faithfulness shown?
13. But to you now I cry Lord as helpless I stand,
And by morning my prayers will have stopped your hand.
14. Lord why do you cast out my soul from your presence
By hiding your face you have shaken my essence!
15. Since the days of my youth I have been afflicted,
Always close to my death, I have stood convicted.
I was always in terror, could not gather my thoughts,
I stood frozen in fear as though tied up in knots.
16. Your hot, fierce anger is poured out upon me,
Your terrors surround me and won’t let me be;
17. This is my lot daily, I’m completely engulfed,
By the rivers of sorrow…but that wasn’t enough:
18. All my friends…all who love me, you have taken away;
My friend now is darkness which won’t go away.
Book IV Psalms 90-106
“M-y-y God (My-y GOD), in you I will trust (in you I will trust), in you I will hope (in you I will hope), and I’ll follow your way! (I’ll follow your way)”
“Have no doubt (have no doubt), he will keep you safe (he will keep you safe) from the pitfalls of life,
and from violent strife.
1: Hear my prayer, oh my Father let my tears to thee ascend;
Let your goodness and your mercy to my tortured soul attend.
2. Lord I beg you; I beseech you; do not turn your face away,
In my awful day of trouble do not leave me Lord I pray.
Tilt your ears in my direction, when upon your name I call;
Hasten to my aid oh Father, lest I stumble, lest I fall.
3. Lord my days are filled with anguish, they’re consumed with fire and smoke;
And my bones are ground to nothing…Lord your mercy I invoke.
4. Lord my spirit has been broken, it’s as dead as withered grass;
And no food, despite my hunger, can I force these lips to pass.
5. All I do is groan in anguish as I fill my prayers with moans.
I am wasted, I am withered and my skin cleaves to my bones.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here
A Prayer of Moses the man chosen by God,
Whose faith and whose visions, to this day have me awed.
1. Lord throughout generations, in you we’ve abided;
2. Before mountains were formed, and the earth subdivided.
You are the creator and your works are long lasting,
From the infinite past, to times everlasting.
3. You allowed man to choose his own path of destruction,
And then called him back for his reconstruction.
4. One thousand years are but one day in your sight;
Once they are passed, they seem short as one night.
5. You sweep all time away, like a storm swollen river;
Like awakening from sleep, there’s no reference for measure.
6. Like the grass that shoots up in the fresh morning rain,
By the evening it’s cut, it’s significance vain.
7. Lord your anger consumes us, we will burn till we’ve died,
We’re ashamed of our deeds, of your wrath terrified.
8. For our sins you’ve uncovered and set forth on display,
Our shame we can’t hide in the light of the day
9. In our short life on earth we wallow in sin,
Much to your dismay, much to your chagrin.
10. The years of our lives are fifty and twenty,
And even perchance if they’re stretched out to eighty,
They are all spent in labor, they are all spent in sorrow,
Till at last they’re cut off, and there’s no more tomorrow.
11. What measure of anger can one use to gauge?
The extent of your wrath, the extent of your rage?
Suffice it to say that your anger’s as great,
As the worst of the terrors that our minds can create.
12. So teach us oh Lord to pay heed to our days,
To follow your wisdom in all of our ways.
13. Relent oh my God, for how long have we got,
For you to forgive us and our sins to be naught?
14. Early in life Lord bestow us your grace,
So our days can be happy, with no judgment to face.
15. Oh Lord recompense us in accordance with all:
The pain we have suffered be it great, be it small…
According to all the years we’ve seen evil,
And our lives were frustrated, going through great upheaval.
16. Let your servant see quickly the pow’r of your grace,
Let my children look up to your glorious face.
17. Let the beauty of God, our Lord, come to rest…
Upon our souls and let us be blessed.
Let the works of our hands by your hands be confirmed,
Let the words of your covenant be hereby reaffirmed.
A Mezmour for the Sabbath, God’s most Holy Day;
Engraved in his commandments, to remind us his way!
1. It is a good thing, to give thanks to the Lord;
To sing praise to your name, our most High and adored.
2. To remember your kindness and your love, in the morning;
And remember your faithfulness, at the end of the evening.
3. To sing praises and thanks, and to make our voice ring:
We will do it with music, with the harp and the string.
4. For you Lord have awed me and have made my soul glad,
By your works, and the victories, which through you I have had.
5. Lord your works are so great, and your thoughts are so deep;
6. That only the wise ones will their benefits reap;
For the brute, and the fool, will not understand;
What will come to pass, and what God has planned.
7. When the doers of evil, like well-watered grass,
Seem to prosper and flourish, and blessings amass;
It will not be their profit, but will be their demise;
Their eternal destruction they will see with their eyes.
8. But you Lord are sovereign now and forever;
9. Your en’mies shall perish and their souls you shall sever.
Like dust in the wind, they’ll be blown, and be scattered;
Their pride and their arrogance, will forever be shattered.
10. But my strength and my might, you exalt and empower
Like a powerful ox I stand tall and I tower:
By your hand I am covered, with fresh oil I’m anointed
As a sign to all creatures that I am your appointed.
11. By faith I have seen my triumph o’er my foes;
My ears have heard, their surrender and woes.
12. And by faith I know that the righteous shall flourish;
Grow tall like a palm tree, that’s well tended and nourished.
13. Those who are planted in the fields of the Lord,
Shall take root and stand firm, God will be their reward.
14. Even with age, they’re as strong as in youth;
Their arms firm and rounded, and their hearts filled with truth.
15. For by this, all shall know, that God is upright;
That he is my rock, and that he is my might.
1. Lord God our creator to whom judgement belongs,
Who will dispense justice, and right all the wrongs;
2. Rise up and give judgement, you judge of the earth
Render payment for evil, pay them what they are worth.
3. Lord how long will the wicked strut about in success?
4. How long will they boast and their triumph express?
5. They have broken your people, their lives they have shattered;
6. The orphans and widows they have murdered and scattered.
7. They’ve become so emboldened they say “God does not see;
And perchance if he does, he won’t answer their plea!”
8. Oh you brutes amongst us, when will you understand?
9. God who formed the ear, hears all in his land!
God who made the eye, don’t you think that he sees?
Don’t you think in his eyes you’re a foul disease?
10. Do you think God the righteous won’t correct his own foes?
He the font of all knowledge, don’t you think that he knows?
11. He knows even our thoughts, the deep ones…the trite;
What we think in the day…what we think in the night.
12. Blessed are the people whom you will correct,
Whom you’ll teach from your laws, and from evil deflect.
13. For such will have peace in the days of their woes;
As the wicked ones gather, bitter fruit that they chose.
14. For God won’t abandon his people, his nation;
Those called by his name, those who are his foundation.
15. He will bring back judgement, and an era that’s blessed;
Which the upright shall follow, where they won’t be oppressed.
16. Who will stand up for me, against those who are evil?
Who cause great destruction and massive upheaval.
17. Had God not been there for me, and rescued my soul;
I’d have suffered in silence, in a deep and dark hole.
18. When I cried out: “I’m slipping!” your mercy was swift;
Held me up in its arms, and would not let me drift.
19. When my soul was in turmoil and my thoughts would not cease;
You calmed all my fears and gave me great peace.
20. Evil kings and their laws, have no fellowship with you;
21. For they spill righteous blood and injustice pursue.
22. But you God are my shield, all my battles you win;
23. While the wicked will perish, cut off by their sin.
1. Sing a new song to God, all you living on earth.
2. Bless his name with a song, sing for all you are worth.
3. Sing of his glory so that everyone knows:
His people; the heathens; and even his foes!
Speak of the wonders of his glorious deeds;
How he fights all your battles and covers your needs.
4. Great is the Lord, so too must be your praise;
He is first among gods, so fear him all your days.
5. For all other gods, are idols, not real;
But the Lord made the heavens, and all that we feel.
6. To him all belongs, all honor and power;
And all of the beauty, that is found in a flower.
7. Come with all of your people, give unto the Lord:
Of your strength, of your thanks, of the treasures you’ve stored.
8. Give unto the lord what is due to his name:
Bring him an offering as his blessings you claim.
9. Come and worship the Lord, see the beauty in being Holy:
All the earth stands in awe, of his power and his Glory.
10. Tell all of the world, that the Lord reigns supreme;
The world is established in God’s grand, holy scheme.
It shall not be moved, but remains fixed forever:
His judgment is righteous, with no fault whatsoever.
11. Let the earth be ecstatic, and the heavens rejoice;
Let the seas sound a roar, in the fullness of voice.
12. Let the fields and all in them, sound their joy in one voice:
Let the trees in the woods stretch their arms and rejoice.
13. For the Lord he is coming to earth for to judge
And his judgment is righteous, from the truth he won’t budge.
1. Sing a song to the Lord, sing him a new song:
For his marvelous deeds, through his hands that are strong.
2. The Lord’s made no secret of his grace and salvation;
He has shown he is righteous, to each heathen and nation.
3. He has not forgotten his truth and his mercy:
The salvation of Isr’el all people can see.
4. To the Lord, our God, make a great joyful noise:
All ye of this earth, give him praise and rejoice.
5. Sing a psalm to the Lord, and play him the harp;
6. With trumpets and cornets make a pitch that is sharp.
7. Let the seas roar approval, as they join this choir;
Let the world join in singing of its heart’s desire.
8. Let the floods clap their hands and the hills join in;
9. As the Lord comes to earth, to judge our sin.
The world he will judge, and righteous he’ll be;
As the righteous he judges, and sets them all free.
1. Shout in joy to the Lord, people of all the lands;
2. Come to him with your songs, obey all he commands.
3. Know that he is the Lord, and that he is our God:
He embodies perfection, nothing in him is flawed.
It is he that has made us what we are today:
We can claim no credit, for our blessings each day.
He looks after our needs like sheep in his fields;
He guides our paths, and from all harm he shields.
4. Enter his courts with praise and thanksgiving;
Bless his name and be grateful, for all you are receiving.
5. For the Lord he is good, and his mercy’s forever;
His truth will endure, forever and ever.
(A psalm of the afflicted, when pain’s too much to bear
And the tears pour out like rivers, engulfed in deep despair).
1. Hear my prayer, oh my Father, let my tears to thee ascend;
Let your goodness and your mercy to my tortured soul attend.
2. Lord I beg you; I beseech you; do not turn your face away,
In my awful day of trouble do not leave me Lord I pray.
Tilt your ears in my direction, when upon your name I call;
Hasten to my aid oh Father, lest I stumble, lest I fall.
3. Lord my days are filled with anguish, they’re consumed with fire and smoke;
And my bones are ground to nothing…Lord your mercy I invoke.
4. Lord my spirit has been broken, it’s as dead as withered grass;
And no food, despite my hunger, can I force these lips to pass.
5. All I do is groan in anguish as I fill my prayers with moans.
I am wasted, I am withered and my skin cleaves to my bones.
6. Lord I’m like a desert owl, or some other lonely bird;
In the stillness of the wilds, without friend or kind word.
7. Like a sparrow on a rooftop, all alone I sit and watch;
8. As I’m slandered by my enemies, who have sworn my life to snatch.
9. Bitter tears and constant mourning, and my never ending strife;
Like my daily bread and water, have been with me all my life.
10. You have cast me to the ground, after having held me high;
In your wrath and indignation you have cast me from the sky.
11. Like the shadows after noon-day as they lengthen and then…go…
Like the grass that’s parched and withered, and has lost its will to grow…
So my days are also numbered, and I sense the time is near,
When my life will stop its struggle, and in darkness disappear.
12. But you LORD endure forever, and are passed through generations;
You’ll be known by all the world, by all people and all nations.
13. I have no doubt that you’ll rise, and you’ll save your Holy city;
Which is eager for your favor, for your mercy and your pity.
14. For even its mere ruins, all its dust, and all its stones
Stir the fires in our hearts, and they strengthen our bones.
15. All the nations, all the godless shall know of you, oh my Lord;
And among their kings and rulers, your full glory shall be told:
16. They shall speak of all you’ve done in restoring your great city;
That your holy grace and mercy are beyond just simple pity.
17. He’ll attend to all the prayers of the wretched and the poor,
He will not ignore their prayers, for their prayers all are pure.
18. All these deeds they are recorded so our children all will know,
So that those who are not born yet, will through praises their love show.
19. For the Lord God from his heavens always looks down on this earth;
20. At the suff’ring of the people from the day of our birth;
He will comfort all the prisoners, he will soften all their groans;
He will break the chains and bindings, that upon us all death holds.
21. To make sure that all his people will remember his great name,
And throughout King David‘s city his great name all shall proclaim:
22. When they’re gathered altogether, all his people and the nations;
To serve God in all his glory, throughout all the generations.
23. At the height of all my glory, God has weakened my great strength;
All my days he has examined, and has cut short of their length.
24. So I cried to God in anguish, Lord do not take me away;
At the height of all my glory, in the middle of my day;
Your own days they are forever, they span through all generations;
25. For your hands have made the heavens, and have set earth’s foundations.
26. All the things of earth shall perish, yes they all shall pass away,
Age shall rob and steal their luster, just as nighttime steals the day.
But by your word you’ll change all things, Surely they shall all be changed.
27. Only you will last forever, only you remain unchanged.
28. But the heirs of all your faithful shall go on and be forever;
For their seed you have established none will move them whatsoever.
1. Bless the LORD Oh my soul! GOD you’re great and you’re holy!
You are covered in honor; you are covered in glory!
2. You are clothed in bright lights, that shimmer and shine;
You created the heavens; whose breadth none can define.
3. You who lay foundations in the deepest of seas;
Who rides clouds as though chariots…walk on wind with great ease.
4. Who turns angels to spirits, or to great flames of fire;
As their ministry needs, as GOD’S plans may require.
5. GOD who laid earth’s foundation so it can’t be removed…
By no power besides you, can it ever be moved.
6. But you called down the floods to wipe out your creations;
To wipe out your people and all of the nations.
7. But with one word from you, with your voice as of thunder;
The waters receded and were scattered asunder.
8. They returned to their homes in the valleys and mountains;
Where they water the earth with their springs and their fountains.
9. You set them their boundaries which are not to be crossed;
So the earth won’t be drowned, in a great holocaust.
10. You directed the waters to the valleys and springs,
11. To give drink to mankind and to all living things.
12. By the banks of your waters a bird makes its nest;
It sings out its heart having found its rest.
13. From your throne in the heavens you God send down the waters;
To give life to the hills, to your sons, and your daughters.
All the earth is content, it is greatly at ease;
As GOD’s life giving waters bring us comfort and peace
14. For the sake of the cattle you make the grass grow,
All manners of plants for our use you bestow:
So that we may fetch food from the bowels of the earth,
For your bounty is plenteous and we’ll suffer no dearth.
15. To make our hearts merry you have given us wine;
Oil for our faces so like stars we will shine.
You give bread for our bodies to make our hearts strong…
It’s no wonder we praise you with our heart and our song.
16. The trees of the LORD with sap overflow;
The cedars he planted for man’s use long ago.
17. There the birds make their nests, and the stork makes its home;
With GOD’s heaven above: as a covering dome.
18. The wild goats find refuge on the sides of GOD’s mountains,
In the rocks hide small creatures, who take drinks from his fountains.
19. GOD created the moon to measure each season;
And the sun knows its job, it’s purpose and reason.
20. GOD himself made the darkness, deprived it of light;
So the beasts of the forest can roam free in the night.
21. At night lions may roar as they hunt down their prey;
But it’s GOD who will feed them and sustain them each day.
22. As the sun rises up and begins a new day;
They gather together and in dens hide away.
23. And mankind goes forth to work until the night;
Then retires to sleep when the day loses light.
24. GOD great is your work, and great is your wisdom;
For the earth you’ve ordained, and we’re part of your kingdom.
25. You made also the seas; so vast and so wide;
Filled them with your creatures, for whom you provide.
26. On their surface sail ships, and in them play great whales;
27. All dependent on you for all things life entails.
28. All that you give them they accept and are grateful;
For your hands bear good things, and your love’s always faithful.
29. But when you are displeased and darken your face;
They are troubled with fear, for they know there’s no place…
There’s no place on this earth they can live without you:
For you give them their breath and their lives you renew.
30. You bring forth new life, by your breath they’re created;
The earth is made new, it is re-generated.
31. The glory of GOD shall forever endure:
His works are perfection and will always be sure.
32. When the LORD is displeased the whole earth is concerned;
For with one angry touch even mountains are burned.
33. I will sing to the LORD as long as I live:
Until my final day, my praises I’ll give.
34. When I think of GOD’s love, my heart will be warm,
I will find great peace, in the midst of the storm.
35. Let those who bring evil, have no place on this earth;
Bless the LORD Oh my soul, for all you are worth.
1. Give thanks to the LORD, give him your praise;
For his goodness and mercy last till end of all days;
2. who on earth can recount all of his mighty deeds?
Who can praise him enough? for his greatness exceeds…
What by mere mortal beings can be seen or described;
What by mere mortal men can in books be inscribed?
3. Blessed are they who follow GOD’S laws;
Who strive to be righteous, and correct human flaws.
4. Consider me LORD, as one of your own;
Your salvation and favor make unto me known.
5. That I may be blessed, like the rest of your nation;
So that I will rejoice, as your own hand’s creation.
6. Like our fathers before us we have sinned oh my LORD;
We’ve been evil and wicked, and your word we’ve ignored.
7. Our fathers forgot the extent of your wonder;
When in Egypt you saved them with mercy and thunder:
They lost all their faith at the shores of the Sea;
And they railed against you for setting them free.
8. But still GOD was faithful for the sake of his name
So his people would know and his goodness proclaim.
9. So he ordered the sea to open its water,
And they walked on dry land, as he saved them from slaughter:
10. From the hands of the enemy GOD redeemed them and saved them;
From all those who hate them, and their lives would condemn.
11. But the waters came back and swallowed the enemy;
For back to its bed GOD had ordered the sea.
Not one of their foes was spared from the waters;
As Isr’el looked on with his sons and his daughters.
12. Then our fathers believed and they sang GOD their praise,
Overcome with emotion they pledged him their days.
13. But soon they forgot and abandoned GOD’S ways;
14. They were given to evil and their hearts were ablaze:
With great lust and temptation as they tempted their LORD.
As all of his wonders and deeds they ignored.
15. So GOD let them go, let them have their own ways;
As he let their foolishness shorten their days.
16. Against Moses and Aaron they rose up and rebelled;
Their spirit of evil would not rest nor be quelled.
17. So the LORD opened up the ground beneath them;
Swallowed Dathan and Abiram, and all those who misled them.
18. And the LORD sent down fire to burn…cleanse away;
This evil among them that had led them astray.
19. For they’d melted their gold and sculpted a statue
Of a calf that they worshiped, they prayed and they bowed to.
20. All of their glory they exchanged for this image:
Of a grass eating beast, gold adorning its visage.
21. For they had forgotten, that by GOD they’d been saved:
With great deeds he performed while they still were enslaved.
22/23. So GOD said he’d destroy them for they had betrayed,
His great works of deliverance, all the love he’d displayed.
Had it not been for Moses his most faithful servant;
Who stood in between with prayers most fervent;
Praying to GOD to turn from this path;
GOD would have destroyed them in his most righteous wrath.
24. When they came to the land that they were to invade;
They doubted GOD’s promise, the oath he had made:
25. They murmured against him as they sat in their tents;
GOD’s promise was drowned in their shouts of dissent.
26. So GOD raised his hands in anger at them;
To chastise and to punish and their acts to condemn.
27. To scatter their children into foreign lands;
For they had rejected his gifts and commands.
28. For they joined themselves to the gods of those nations
Provoking the LORD with their a-bo-minations.
29. They provoked him to anger with their abomination;
So a plague came upon them to punish their nation.
30. But Phi-ne-has stood up, and GOD’s will executed;
As he punished the leaders who GOD’s land had polluted.
GOD’s anger was stopped as Phi-ne-has prayed,
And the evil against them was finally stayed.
31. GOD counted as righteous what Phi-ne-has had done;
He’s forever remembered for God’s grace he had won.
32. By the banks of Meriba they provoked God anew;
Causing Moses to sin, despite all that he knew.
33. They plagued Moses with words, of anger and fear;
Causing him to forego GOD’s instruction so clear;
That it cost him GOD’s promise of ent’ring the land;
That was promised to Isr’el if they kept his command.
34. Even after they entered the land that GOD gave them
They continued to sin and GOD’s name to blaspheme…
35. They mixed with the heathen, and adopted their ways;
36. They worshiped their idols: bowed down and gave praise.
37. They sacrificed children to these false gods primeval;
Their own sons and their daughters gave up to this evil.
38. They shed innocent blood of their sons and their daughters;
They polluted all Canaan, all its lands, and its waters.
39. Thus they were defiled by their foolish inventions;
By their works of great evil; their self-righteous pretensions.
40. They kindled GOD’s anger, they kindled GOD’s wrath;
When the LORD they abandoned; and chose this evil path.
41. So the LORD turned them over to their enemy’s hand;
42. So they would be oppressed in what once was their land.
43. Many times GOD repented and held back his hand
But each time, as time passed, they defiled the land.
44. Even so GOD would hear, when in earnest they prayed;
45. And remembered the Covenant and the promise he’d made.
So again he’d repent and show them his grace;
Lest they be destroyed without leaving a trace.
46. The hearts of their captors GOD filled with compassion,
Replacing with pity their hate driven passion.
47.. Gather us LORD from where we are scattered,
Save us oh GOD from the woes we have suffered.
So that we can together give thanks to your name,
So that blessings and victories in your name we can claim.
48. Blessed be the LORD, and praised be the LORD;
The LORD GOD of Isr’el, from whom came the Word.
From start to forever praise him over again,
Let all people acknowledge him singing Amen.
1. If you make your home in God’s secret place
You shall always abide in his mercy and grace.
2. He’s my refuge, my fortress…and of him I will say:
“My God I will trust you and I’ll follow your way!”
3. Have no doubt he will save you from the pitfalls of life…
From plagues that are raging, and from violent strife.
4. As a mother bird would, he’ll hide you in his feathers,
His wings provide safety in response to your prayers.
For in him you have trusted, and so it shall be,
That his truth will protect you, from your fears set you free.
5. You shall not be afraid of the terrors of night,
Nor the death that attacks, in the noon-day bright light.
6. Nor of the diseases that stalk in the dark,
Nor the daytime destruction that’s unleashed with a spark.
7. One thousand shall fall at your side through God’s might;
Another ten thousand by your side…on your right.
8. With your eyes you shall see this but it shall not come near you;
Through this storm of destruction unscathed you will pass through.
9. Because you have chosen God most high as your dwelling;
10. No evil shall touch you, nor affect your well-being.
No plague shall come near you, nor your home will it enter;
For God is your focus…your balance…your center.
11. For he shall commission his angels to watch you,
Your safety and welfare they will always pursue.
12. They shall hold you up, on your path as you walk…
So you won’t stub your feet, nor trip over a rock.
13. With your feet you shall crush the lion and the snake;
The young lion and dragon in pieces you’ll break.
14, 15. And thus sayeth the Lord: “BECAUSE THEY HAVE LOVED ME
I WILL DELIVER, AND I WILL SET THEM FREE!
BECAUSE THEY KNOW MY NAME, I’LL RESPOND WHEN THEY CALL!
I’LL BE WITH THEM IN TROUBLE, SAVE THEM LEST THEY FALL.
I WILL PAY THEM GREAT HONOR, GIVE THEM MY RESPECT;
THEIR LIVES WILL BE PRECIOUS AND I’LL ALWAYS PROTECT!
16. WITH LONG LIFE I’LL REWARD THEM, THEY WILL BE SATISFIED;
THEY WILL SEE MY SALVATION AS I STAND BY THEIR SIDE!”
1. The Lord reigns Forever! There’s no other God!
He is clothed in his power, and creation is awed!
He is girded with strength, as he set earth’s formation;
No power can move it from its foundation.
2. You have been in existence since time everlasting!
Your throne is forever through eternity lasting.
3. The floods rise against you, their waves crashing loudly;
4. But you are almighty, and you put them down softly.
5. Your works shall bear witness that your word is forever,
All about you is Holy, there’s no doubt whatsoever!
1. Oh come let us sing to the God of our nation
Let us make joyful noise to our rock of salvation.
2. Let us come with thanksgiving and enter his presence,
With music and psalms let us worship his essence.
3. For our Lord is The God, there are none that compare,
Of this I am certain, and to this I can swear.
4. All the deep hidden places of this earth he holds,
In the palms of his hands, and their secrets unfolds.
The strength of the mountains to him also belong;
He owns all that is great, and all that is strong.
5. His are also the seas, he made them with his hands
As he did the dry earth as he formed the dry lands.
6. Oh come let us worship and bow down before him,
Let us kneel to our maker and sing him a hymn.
7. For we are his people, and he is our God:
Like sheep in his pasture he will guide with his rod.
You can be his today, if you heed to his voice.
If you make him your savior, if you make him your choice.
8. Do not harden your hearts, do not seek provocation,
As you have done before when faced with temptation.
9. As Israel did before it was a nation,
As it wandered the desert and succumbed to temptation.
10. “FORTY YEARS I HAVE GRIEVED FOR THAT GENERATION,
AND I SAID THESE ARE PEOPLE WHO ERR AS A NATION.
FOR THEIR HEARTS THEY HAD HARDENED, THEY REJECTED MY WAYS.
SO THE DESERT THEY WANDERED FOR THE REST OF THEIR DAYS:
11. FOR IN ANGER I SWORE THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE,
NOR ENTER THE REST THEY WERE SEEKING FROM ME.”
1. The Lord reigns supreme, he’s the most righteous ruler;
His love is unmatched for he is the creator;
So be glad humankind, let the whole earth rejoice;
Wherever you are, give praise with one voice.
2. To our eyes he’s surrounded by clouds and by darkness;
Mortal eyes cannot see him, they are blind unless…
God peels back the veil and shows us his glory:
His judgments most righteous, and his throne that is Holy.
3. Holy fire precedes him wherever he goes;
Consuming all evil, consuming his foes;
4. His lightning declares to the world that he’s God:
And the earth saw and trembled, by his majesty awed.
5. In his presence the mountains, like wax thrown to fire,
Are melted to nothing, like wood on a pyre.
6. All of the heavens declare he is holy,
And all humankind will witness his glory.
7. Cur-sed are those who worship an image;
Who bow down to idols, all decked out in bright plumage:
For your gods are not gods, they’re a sham, they’re a fraud!
They are nothing, they’re empty! and they‘ll bow down to God!
8. Isr’el heard this and was glad with his daughters
They rejoiced in your judgments along with their brothers.
9. For you Lord are higher than any on earth,
There are none who compare, who can equal your worth.
10. All you who hate evil, and who love the Lord:
The Lord will preserve you, he is true to his word!
He delivers his saints from the hands of the wicked;
From the hands of oppression and the hardships inflicted.
11. God sowed light on the earth; for the righteous of heart,
So their paths it will light, and they’ll never depart…
From the path laid by God; know the good from the bad;
So their hearts will choose right, and will always be glad.
12. So all of you righteous, thank the Lord who is Holy;
Remember his words, and remember his glory!
1. The Lord reigns supreme, let all people be awed:
He sits ‘tween his cherubs; our creator, our God.
Not only the living, but the earth will be awed;
In the presence of YAHWEH, in the presence of God.
2. For the city of David he has special love,
He protects all its people, from high on above.
3. Let them praise your great name, and give it all glory;
For his name is great, and his name is holy.
4. God’s strength is for justice, and for that which is right;
He delivers his judgment, through the day and the night.
5. So praise ye the Lord, and give him all glory;
Worship at his feet for he is most Holy.
6. Among those who called on him his protections to claim,
Are Moses and Aaron, and Samuel by name;
They called on the Lord, they asked in his name;
And he answered them quickly, never put them to shame.
7. Through a pillar of clouds he spoke to them directly:
For they all kept his laws, always walking uprightly.
8. You answered them Lord, you always forgave them;
Even though when they strayed, you made sure to correct them.
9. Lift up our God in all of his glory,
Worship at his feet, for our God he is Holy.
A psalm of David:
1. Of mercy and of justice, to you Lord I sing;
For these two are the essence, of being a king.
2. In all that I do, I will follow your wisdom,
In affairs of my house, and those of my kingdom.
But not on my own, I can’t do this without you;
Lord grant me your counsel, in all that I do.
In all of the business that I set my hand to,
In all of the ventures that I’m blessed to pursue.
3. I will not long for evil, I won’t make it my prize;
I will not even let it be seen by my eyes.
For I hate all the works of those who scorn your ways,
I will not let their actions, defile my days.
4. A heart that is evil and lacking in wisdom;
I shall cast from within me, and out of my kingdom.
5. Those who slander their neighbor, from my presence I’ll scatter;
The vain and the haughty, their illusions I’ll shatter.
6. Instead I will seek the faithful, the wise:
Those that walk with the Lord, who are blessed in his eyes;
They shall help me to rule, they shall help me to serve;
The words of his covenant to keep and preserve.
7. Those that live by deceit and in telling of lies,
Have no place by my side, keep them far from my eyes.
8. The first thing I will do is destroy all the evil,
That stalks through our land, causing pain and upheaval.
The doers of evil will all be cast out:
From the city of God they will be put to rout.
(A psalm of David)
1. Bless the Lord Oh my Soul, and his goodness proclaim,
With all of my strength bless his Holy name.
2. Bless the Lord Oh my Soul, remember his grace;
3. He heals all your ills, and your sins he’ll erase.
4. He who rescues your life, from the flames of destruction
From the traps set for you, by men of corruption.
He who clothes you with mercy, and his own special love;
As he watches your doings from the heavens above.
5. He who feeds you on blessings, and all things that are good;
So your strength and your youth, are forever renewed.
6. He brings mercy and justice to the poor and oppressed;
His judgments are righteous and with wisdom are blessed.
7. Through Moses his chosen, he revealed his plans;
For salvation of Isr’el, all its tribes and its clans.
8. The Lord he is gracious and he is filled with mercy;
He is quick to forgive and is slow to be angry.
9. But there will come a time when his patience is ended;
When his hold on his anger will not be extended.
10.. He has not dealt with us as our sins would require;
For by now they’d have brought us damnation and fire.
11. For as high as the heavens extend over our heads;
So too stretch his mercies, and his grace on us spreads.
On all those who fear him and hold him in awe;
On all those who trust him and on his mercy draw.
12. As far as the West is apart of the East,
He has scattered our sins: from their pow’r we’re released.
13. Just as mercy and pity fill the heart of a father;
To those who are with him, God will be as a mother.
14. For he knows our weakness, and he knows we are dust;
And he’s able to help us, if in him we would trust.
15. As for us we are nothing, our days are like grass;
16. For a moment we flourish then our presence will pass.
The earth won’t remember, there will not be a trace,
Of our joys and our struggles in this transient place.
17. But to those who fear GOD, GOD’S mercy’s eternal;
To their children and theirs, he will show love supernal.
18. To all who are bound by the oath of his cov’nant
Who keep his commands: they will enter his gov’rnment.
19. For the throne of the LORD in heaven is set;
He rules over all, all our needs he has met.
20. Bless the Lord you his angels, you who do his commands;
Who fulfill all his words, with the strength of your hands.
21. Bless the Lord all his hosts, his angels and creatures;
All who do all his works, his priests and his preachers;
22. Bless him all of you…the works of his hands:
Wherever you are, even outside these lands.
Bless the Lord oh my soul
And his goodness extol!
1: Give thanks to the LORD, let your love for him show;
Speak of all his great deeds, let all people know!
2. Sing songs unto him, sing your poems of praise;
Sing loud of his works, and his wondrous ways.
3. In his holy name let your glory be
Let the hearts of his people be joyful and free.
4. Seek the LORD and his strength, cling to his holy might;
Seek him forever, through the day and the night.
5. Remember his works! The great things he has done:
The judgments he’s rendered, and the battles you’ve won.
6. Never forget, you who are his chosen;
You descendants of Abraham, to whom GOD has spoken.
7. That he is the LORD! That he is our GOD
That his judgments are perfect, not one of them flawed.
8. He will abide by his covenant forever
Throughout all generations his word shall not waver.
9. What to Abraham and Isaac he promised on oath;
10. To Jacob and Israel he confirms to them both.
11. By saying to them: “I will give you this land;
This land they call Canaan, I will place in your hand”.
12. He promised them this when they were just a clan;
When their numbers were few, and they had no plan.
When they were but strangers, in a land where they wandered;
13. As they tended their flocks in the tents where they gathered.
14. GOD allowed no nation to cause them a wrong;
No matter how great, no matter how strong!
15. He said: “TOUCH NOT MY PEOPLE! TOUCH NOT MY ANOINTED,
TOUCH NOT MY PROPHETS, WHOM I HAVE APPOINTED!”
16. Then GOD sent a fierce famine where his people dwelled;
It seemed nothing could save them, and their end they beheld.
17. But GOD in his wisdom had sent Joseph ahead;
18. Who was sold as a slave, and in fetters was led.
19. GOD tested him hard but this man remained true,
20. Then Pharaoh sent for him and his favor grew.
21. Pharaoh made him a lord, set him over his lands;
Set him over his house, all obeyed his commands.
22. Pharaoh gave him the power, his princes to bind;
To teach governors wisdom, this to him he assigned.
23. Then the rest of his people from Canaan migrated,
They settled in Egypt where their hunger was sated.
24. Over the years their numbers increased;
25. The Egyptians were threatened, and their hate was released.
26. So Moses and Aaron were chosen by GOD,
To deliver his people armed with only a rod.
27. They stood before Pharaoh and showed him GOD’S power:
But Pharaoh unmoved remained stubborn and dour.
28. So GOD sent them darkness but the king would not listen;
29. He turned water to blood, but he still would not listen;
30. He sent frog infestations, but he still would not listen;
31. Sent flies and sent lice, still he would not listen;
32. GOD sent fiery hail, and he still would not listen;
33. He destroyed all their plants, Pharaoh still would not listen;
34. He rained on them locusts, and pests of all kind
To devour their trees and all plants they could find;
35. But Pharaoh was stubborn and still would not listen;
36. So GOD smote their firstborn…both of man and of beast, AND THIS FINALLY MADE EGYPT’S PHARAOH TO LISTEN.
37. GOD led out his people with much silver and gold;
He renewed all their strength, and made each person bold.
38. Egypt breathed in relief when the Hebrews departed;
For their fear had been great since the plagues had first started.
39. As his people went forth, they were clothed in a cloud;
And at night holy fire kept them safe and unbowed.
40. He fed them with Menna, and fed them with quail;
41. Brought forth water from rocks, so their strength would not fail.
42. For GOD always remembered the promise he’d made;
To Abraham his servant who always obeyed.
43. So he brought out his people with joy and with gladness;
He wiped all their tears and all traces of sadness.
44. All the land of the heathen, all the labor they’d done;
He gave to his people, all their battles he won.
45. So that they may observe all his laws and commands;
Praise the name of the LORD for the work of his hands.
Book V - Psalms 107 - 150
Let all things that have breath praise him whose unflawed; Let them joyfully shout and declare: PRAISE THE LORD.
1. Give thanks to the LORD the GOD of us all, for he’s good and his mercy’s forever.
His love is unyielding and he will not be moved by no power on earth whatsoever.
2. Let the children of Isr’el whom he has redeemed bear witness to him and his name,
For he has redeemed them from the hands of their en’my, where they dwelt in misery and shame.
3. He gathered them all from whence they were scattered, the far lands of the East and the West;
From the lands of the North and the lands of the South he redeemed them, brought them home to their rest.
4. For while they were scattered they wandered all over, they had no place of their own;
5. They hungered and thirsted, their spirits were faint, they were weak in their flesh and their bone.
6. At the height of their troubles they cried unto the LORD, to repent and their sins to confess;
In his goodness and mercy he showed them his grace; he delivered them from their distress.
7. He went on before them and he led them in safety to the city for their habitation;
8. Oh that they would praise GOD for his goodness and blessings: to his children and all of creation.
9. For GOD fills the soul that is empty and barren, he fills it with strength and with light;
The soul that was wrapped in the dark of despair, he brings out to the day from the night.
10. Some sat in the dark, ‘neath the shadow of death; they were captive and bound in affliction;
11. For they held in contempt, the counsels of GOD, they had rebelled and shunned his direction.
12. So he left them alone and in anguish they fell, without GOD their pain to suppress.
13. But they turned back to GOD and he stretched forth his hands, took away their pain and distress.
14. From their darkness he led them, brought them back to their light; brought them out of the shadow of death;
He broke all of their chains, with which they were held, restored to them body and breath.
15. Oh that all would praise GOD for his goodness and blessings: to his children and all of creation.
16. For he broke down the gates and the shackles of iron, that bound them in abject oppression.
17. Those who willingly stray from the way of the LORD, and embark on the path of transgression:
They are fools who are suffering pain and affliction, and their souls they are dark with oppression.
18. Their bellies are blocked, no food can they eat, with dulled eyes they are searching for death;
19. With the last of their breath, they cry out to the LORD, who restores them and fills them with breath.
20. GOD sent them his word, to heal and redeem them, and save them from death and damnation/ ;
21. Oh that all of us humans would give praise to the LORD, for his grace and his gift of salvation.
22. Give him off’rings and thanks; give him praise for his goodness, and with joy tell of all he has done;
How with darkness he fought to redeem our lost souls, how our souls he has ransomed and won.
23. The men of the seas, who go forth in their ships, to do business upon the great ocean:
24. They have witnessed the wonders and works of our GOD, in the midst of nature’s commotion.
25. They have seen mighty storms that were raised up by GOD, that lift mighty waves to the skies;
26. They are flung to great heights, then cast down to great depths; as each soul melts with fear and dies.
27. Like an untethered feather blown about by the wind, they are tossed by the storm and the gale;
Like a drunken man walking, they stagger about, as they aimlessly slither and flail.
28. In their heart-stricken terror they cry out to the LORD, and he saves them from their great distress.
29. He brings calm to their storm, and soothes the waves; as the seas to his will acquiesce.
30..In exhaustion they lie, as they breath with relief, as GOD guides them on to safe haven.
They fall to their knees and with tears they thank him, knowing full well their help came from heaven.
31. Would but all of GOD’s children see the blessings he gives us, and give praise to the name of the LORD;
Would we just but recall his blessings and all, and the gifts which upon us he poured.
32. In all of their gatherings, let his people exalt him, let the elders assembled give praise:.
33..He dries up the rivers and the life-giving springs, he can turn all good things into waste;
34. He can take fertile lands, make them empty and barren, for the evil that his people embraced.
35. Or he’ll take desert lands and fill them with water, he can bless them with life-giving springs:
36. Where he’ll settle the hungry, give them safe habitation, to enjoy the blessings he gives.
37. They will grow their own food, and plant their own orchards, and harvest whatever they sow;
38. He will bless all their works, and prosper them greatly; so that hardship and loss they won’t know.
39. But again once their filled they wander away, how quickly his people forget him;
So again they are fallen and are whipped with affliction, and the light of their glory grows dim.
40. Upon princes and kings he brings down disgrace, as they wander in blind confusion;
Not knowing they’re lost, as GOD’s grace they ignore, as they wallow in their own delusion.
41. Yet the poor and the haggard, who cling fast to his name, he lifts up and above of affliction;
He increases their worth, and their children protects: he redeems them through his crucifixion.
42. The righteous shall see this and with joy shall give praise, as sin’s power is stopped dead in its tracks;
43. Those with wisdom shall know that they have been redeemed, and are saved from evil’s attacks.
A psalm from David, to his chief musician.
1. Hold not your peace LORD, rise up for my sake;
2. For the wicked have risen and my life they will take.
They speak evil against me, with deceit and with lies;
3. They surround me with hatred and with violence they rise.
4. They do so because of my love for your ways,
and because of my prayers… But I still give you praise.
5. They reward me with evil for the good I have done,
through the love that I give them, their hatred I’ve won.
6. Let a heartless judge, judge them, at the end of their times;
By their side only Satan as they’re judged for their crimes.
7. At the time of their judgment, let them be found guilty;
Let their prayers have no meaning, make them useless and empty.
8. Let their things of importance be fleeting and few;
let others take over, and their days be like dew.
9. Let their children, those like them, be without a father;
Their wives become widows, betrothed to another.
10. May their children be homeless and beg in the streets;
Let their meals be uncertain, no relief for their needs.
11. Let all that they have be lost to their debts;
The fruits of their labors, be taken by threats.
12. Let none show them mercy, let none show them compassion;
To them nor their children, for they hate you with passion.
13. Let their seed be cut off, in the next generation;
Their names be erased, with no explanation.
14. LORD forget not the evil of all of their fathers;
And erase not the sins of all of their mothers.
15. May GOD always remember the evil they’ve done;
And erase all their memory from under the sun.
16. For they never showed mercy to the needy and poor,
As they murdered and slaughtered, their wealth to secure.
17. Your blessings they’ve spurned, so your blessings keep from them;
With the evil they love, their own souls they condemn.
18. In vileness and evil they have covered themselves;
Let their curses be on them, and cause them distress.
19. Let these curses engulf them, take over their life;
Give them no peace, and cause them much strife.
20. Let this be their harvest, the rewards that they reap;
For their evils against me, that made my soul weep.
21. But this do for me LORD for your mercy is good:
Deliver my soul from the evil that would…
Smother my soul and extinguish its flame;
Do this for me LORD for the sake of your name.
22. For LORD I am needy, I am weak, and I’m poor:
My wounded heart bleeds as it prays for your cure.
23. I die like the shadows at the end of each day;
Like an insect I’m battered by the wind’s mighty sway.
24. I fast all day long, and my knees have turned weak;
My flesh wastes away as your mercy I seek.
25. All who see me like this, shake their heads and reproach me;
They all laugh at my pain, and they won’t let me be.
26. Help me oh LORD, wipe the tears off my face;
Have mercy on me through your infinite grace.
27. For then they will know that this is your hand;
That this is your doing, that by my side you’ll stand.
28. Let them shout, let them curse me, BUT should they arise;
Shame them oh LORD, in front of my eyes.
29. Let all of my enemies be covered in shame;
Let them be confounded, this I ask in your name.
30. But me oh my LORD, I will stand up in praise;
To the world I will speak of your merciful ways.
31. For you stand by the poor, to redeem and make whole;
To protect from all those that lay guilt on their soul.
A note about Psalm 111.
This Psalm is one of several psalms that are structured as a type of acrostics. Two others are psalms 112 (the next one), and psalm 119.
Each line of this psalm and psalm 112 represents a letter of the Hebrew alphabet (in order), and that particular line begins with the letter that is represented by that line.
I have tried to imitate this structure, and I have identified the particular letter at the beginning of each section, along with the sound it makes.
I have tried to begin each line with the particular letter that is represented by that line. However in trying to do this I have been confronted with several challenges, and I have had to be a little creative. Call it creative license if you will. For example in some cases, there is no corresponding sound/letter in the English alphabet, such as Aleph. In those cases I just assigned to it the closest sound/letter of the English alphabet, that I thought would be appropriate.
In some instances there are letters like “HE” and “HETH”, which have different sound in Hebrew but are similar to “H” in English, so I have used their English counterparts for more than one section. So you will find two sections devoted to the English “H”.
Finally, I have used one (or at the most two) of what I call word connectors to connect one line to the other, which do not start with the letter represented. For example the first line is represented by the letter Aleph (A), but I started it with the word “WITH”, in order to connect to the word “ALL”.
For those concerned with purity of form, please forgive my liberties. I hope you enjoy this in the spirit it was written.
ALEPH (A)
WITH
1. ALL of my heart I give praise to you GOD;
BET (B)
BEFORE all of your people, the young and the old.
GHIMEL (G)
2. GOD’S work is sublime and his people rejoice
DALETH (D)
Those
DELIGHTING in him are wise in their choice.
HE (H)
3. HIS works are majestic, each one full of glory,
WAW (W)
His
WORKS are eternal, and righteous his story.
ZAIN (Z)
Our
4. ZEALOUS devotion he accepts and approves;
HETH (H)
HIS mercy and love, every day to us proves.
TETH (T)
5. TO those who are his, he provides what we need;
YOD (Y)
YOUR covenant Oh LORD, forever you’ll keep.
KAPH (K)
He
6. CONSTANTLY shows us his power and might;
LAMED (L)
LEADS us to vict’ry, gives us spoils of our fight.
MEM (M)
7. MERCY and justice, and grace fill his deeds;
NUN (N)
His
NATURE is constant, and his truth meets our needs.
SAMEK (S)
8. STAND fast, his commandments, till the end of all days;
AIN (A)
ALL are grounded in truth his uprightness gains praise.
PE (P)
His
9. PEOPLE he rescues without undue delay
SADE (S/SH)
He
SHALL firmly establish his cov’nant this day.
QOPH (K)
He is
KING and his name is awesome and holy,
RESH (R)
10.RESPECT for his name is the source of all wisdom… the
source of all blessings…and the source of all glory;
SCHIN (SH)
All
SHOULD live by this creed to gain understanding
TAU (T)
Giving
THANKS and great praise to this GOD everlasting.
1. Praise the LORD all you people, all you who obey him;
Praise the name of the LORD with a prayer and a hymn.
2. Bless the great name of GOD now and forever,
In all that you do, at all times whatsoever.
3. From the time the sun rises, climbs the skies in the East,
To the moment it sets and the night is released.
Praise his name every moment, praise him without fail,
Let the sound of your praise over all else prevail.
4. For the LORD is Almighty he’s above all the nations,
And his glory surpasses even heaven’s foundations.
5. What is there to compare to the greatness of GOD?
Who dwells up on high where he makes his abode?
6. Yet cares for each thing in heaven and earth,
Be it great be it small, and no matter it’s worth.
7. He lifts up the wretched from out of the dust…
From the foulest of pits, without any disgust.
8. Such a wretch he sets high with princes and kings,
With the Kings of his people, and gives them great things.
9. He opens the womb that is barren and empty,
And fills it with life for his blessings are plenty.
So give praise to our GOD and give praise to our LORD
Whose blessings upon us in abundance are poured.
1. For all that we are, for all that we have, let the glory be
yours GOD, for none of it’s ours.
For the sake of your mercy and the sake of your truth, we
give praise to your name, and your boundless powers.
2. For we want no heathen, no woman nor man, to have doubts
about you to ask where you are.
To ask “where is their GOD? Let him come forth! Let’s see him”, as they question your being, and they question your pow’r.
3. You our GOD, you exist, you inhabit the heavens; all power
is yours, and you do as you please.
4. But their gods are idols made of silver and gold; by their
own hands they’re fashioned from the wood of the trees.
5. These idols have mouths, but they cannot speak. By the
hands of their masters they are shaped and their formed.
From shapeless wood bits, and dead hunks of rocks, they are carved by their masters into to idols transformed.
These idols have eyes carved ornately with care, but they’re dull, lifeless orbs, and nothing they see.
6. They have noses and mouths but they can’t smell a thing.
Nor utter a phrase to protest or agree.
7. These idols have feet but they can’t take a step; they
also have hands but they can’t feel a thing.
Like us they have throats that look like our own, but they’re empty and useless from which no sound can spring.
8. Those who make them and shape them, and give them their
names; and those who bow to them and give them their praise;
They are useless and worthless like the idols they serve, and they will be fools to the end of their days.
9. But you oh Israel, put your trust in the LORD, for he is
your shield, your help and your sword.
10. And you tribe of Aaron look to him for your help; for
he is your shield; for he is your LORD.
11. And all you who fear him and trust in the LORD; keep
your trust in his hands, keep your trust in the LORD, for he is your shield, and he is your helmet, he is your defender with his mighty sword.
12. The LORD always remembers and he will bless us all:
the descendants of Isr’el, of Aaron, and all;
13. He will bless them that fear him both the young and
the old; the very important and the ones who are small.
14. May the LORD give you blessings, and prosper you more;
May he bless all your children from the day of their birth;
15. For this is our GOD, this is our ALMIGHTY; our GOD
the CREATOR, of heaven and earth.
16. Although the great heavens, the great mighty heavens;
he has kept for himself, and reigns there supreme;
The earth he has given to us his creation, he gives us our will, to live as we deem.
17. Those who die and are gone no longer praise GOD, they
no longer bear witness, their voices are stilled.
18. But we who are living and by GOD are redeemed, will
praise him forever as his word is fulfilled.
1. All the people’s on earth as well as all nations,
Give praise to the LORD, throughout all generations.
2. For GOD’s mercy and kindness towards all is great,
His truth is forever, with praise celebrate.
A note about Psalm 119.
This Psalm is the longest in the bible, 176 verses. It is comprised of 22 sections, each section 8 verses long.
Each section represents a letter of the Hebrew alphabet (in order), and each verse in that section begins with the letter that is represented by that section.
I have tried to imitate this structure, and I have identified the particular letter at the beginning of each section, along with the sound it makes.
I tried to begin each verse in each section with the particular letter that is represented by that section. However in trying to do this I have been confronted with several challenges, and I have had to be a little creative. Call it creative license if you will. For example in some cases, there is no corresponding sound/letter in the English alphabet, such as Aleph. In those cases I just assigned to it the closest sound/letter of the English alphabet, that I thought would be appropriate.
In other instances some letters just were too difficult to start a verse with, and in those instances, I have assigned several sounds that are closes, and then started each verse in that section with one of those letters/sounds. For example in the case of the Hebrew letter “ZAIN”, I assigned it the English alphabet letters and sounds “Z” and “S”. This has also resulted in my using a particular English alphabet letter more than once.
Additionally there are letters like “HE” and “HETH”, which have different sound in Hebrew but are similar to “H” in English, so I have used their English counterparts for more than one section. So you will find two sections devoted to the English “H”.
Finally, as in previous acrostic types, I have used connectors to help me.
For those concerned with purity of form, please forgive my liberties. I hope you enjoy this in the spirit it was written.
ALEPH (A)
1. ALL blessings to those who walk in GOD’s law
2. ALWAYS they’ll be blessed for it is without flaw.
3. ALL our lives we have sought to walk in GOD’s way
The
4. ALMIGHTY has told us to hear and obey.
So
5. ALWAYS I pray to keep your commandment
For then
6. ALWAYS my heart to your throne will ascend.
7. ALL day long I will praise you once I know of your ways
8. ALL my life I will seek you, yes all of my days!
BET (B)
9. BY what means can our young ones remain upright and pure?
By what means can their souls salvation secure?
10. BY living their lives as your word has prescribed,
by having your laws in their hearts inscribed.
I have
11. BURIED your promises deep in my heart,
for I don’t want my sins to keep us apart.
12. BLESSED are you Lord, teach me all your laws,
be kind to me and correct all my flaws.
13. BY my lips I declare, and I spread your word,
For I’m blessed by your teachings by all that I’ve heard.
14. BEYOND all of the riches you’ve bestowed unto me,
I’ve been blessed by your teachings which have set my soul free.
15. BY night and by day I will meditate
I’ll believe in your precepts, your instructions await.
For
16. BEAUTY I find in all of your laws,
be they etched in my heart and correct all my flaws!
GIMEL (G)
17. GRANT me your love so I’ll live and obey you,
18. GIVE me sight so your laws I will see and pursue.
A
19. GUEST and a stranger I will be on this earth:
grant me wisdom and truth from the day of my birth.
20. GOD my soul is in anguish from longing to see
Your glorious justice bring your foes to their knee.
21. GOD chastise the wicked and the evil of heart
22. GOD shield me from their malice, please take up my part.
23. GOVERNORS, kings, they all put me on trial,
But
24. GOD my soul’s yours, for your love is worthwhile.
DALETH (D)
25. DEATH now surrounds me, I am weak, and I’m faint;
dust blankets my soul as your help I await.
I
26. DENIED not my sins, and you answered my prayer
Now
teach me your laws please, and our cov’nant repair.
27. DIRECT me to wisdom: teach me to keep your ways,
Day and night in my soul I will give you my praise.
28. DRIVEN by grief I lie sleepless at night,
29. DO not turn from your promise; help me through with your might.
30. DESPITE my weak nature, I choose to be loyal
despite all my fears I will not be disloyal.
Your
31. DECREES and commandments from me won’t depart,
during fullness and hardships, they’ll stay close to my heart.
Your
32. DECREES and commandments I will cling to and run,
For
despite my weak flesh, my freedom you’ve won.
HE (H)
33. HELP me oh Lord know the way of your law,
Hide it deep in my heart so I’m always in awe.
34. HEAVEN knows I will keep it if I have understanding
And my
heart will forever submit to you my king.
35. HELP me find my way within your commandment
And my
Heart shall delight and will never lament.
Turn my
36. HEART to your laws, to the sound of your words;
Let my
heart forsake riches and by your words be stirred.
37. HEAL my heart from desiring the vain things of this life,
help me rather to walk, with you without strife.
38. HIDE your word in my heart, let it be confirmed,
For my
heart is in awe, to your service affirmed.
39. HALT me in my tracks when I take the wrong path
help me look unto you, to avoid your great wrath.
40. HEAVY was my heart as I longed for your laws,
hand me not to destruction, despite all my flaws.
WAW/VAU (W/V)
By your
41. WORDS let your mercy become my salvation,
visit me with your grace, GOD of all of creation.
42. WHEN I’m mocked and I’m scorned for trusting your word,
with your words I’ll respond! I will not be deterred.
43. WITHHOLD not your truth for it is my intent,
To
worship you GOD and to trust your precept.
44. WILLINGLY, Lord I will keep your commands;
I
will walk in your laws as your word demands.
I
45. WILL walk in your laws for they guide and they show me,
How
with you by my side I will always be free.
46. WITHOUT fear, without shame, I will speak unto kings;
I
47. WILL witness your word and the peace that it brings.
I
48. WILL stretch out my hands to receive your commands;
I
will study their meanings so my heart understands.
ZAIN (Z/S)
LORD with
49. ZEAL I remind you of the promise you made me,
for therein lies my hope, that sets my soul free.
This
50. SUSTAINS me throughout the days of my suffering,
gives me life and great courage; to your promise I’ll cling.
51. ZEALOUSLY LORD I have kept your commands
even though I am mocked and reviled in these lands.
With
52. ZEAL I tell all of your deeds from the past;
that your judgments are righteous and your wisdom is vast;
Like a
53. ZEALOT I am angered, and I am enraged;
when your laws are abandoned, and by evil we’re gauged.
54. SCATTERED in exile I am all alone;
still your laws I will keep for their love I have known.
55. ZEALOUSLY always I will call on your name,
I will follow your laws for in them there’s no shame.
With
56. ZEAL and love your laws I have kept;
Count it LORD to my credit, and my offering accept.
HETH
57. HAVE I not told you GOD, you are all things to me?
And keeping your word, is what keeps my soul free?
58. HEAR now oh my LORD, my prayer so fervent;
By your own word I hold you to show grace to your servant.
I
59. HAVE pondered my ways, where I may have gone wrong;
And I’ve ordered my feet, on your path to stay strong.
With
60. HASTE and in earnest your commandments I kept,
I did not delay! To your bidding I leapt.
I
61. HEEDED your laws, even though I was bound,
By the chains of the wicked, I was held to the ground;
Still I did not forget, and I did not falter;
For I knew all my blessings, will be found at your altar.
I
62. HAVE risen at midnight, to give thanks to you LORD;
For your judgments are righteous and are true to your word.
I
63. HAVE been a companion to all those who fear you;
Who follow your ways, and your precepts pursue.
64. HEAVEN knows that your mercy fills up all of this earth;
So teach me your statutes from the day of my birth.
TETH (T)
65. TRULY oh LORD, you’ve dealt well with your servant;
You have kept your word to me with a zeal most fervent.
66. TEACH me good judgment, and with wisdom empower,
For I keep your commandments, and believe in their power.
67. THERE once was a time when I was afflicted,
When I went astray and your word contradicted.
68. TEACH me your statutes, and teach me your word;
For LORD you are good, and your way is preferred.
69. THE proud and the mighty have stood up against me;
They have forged lies against me, they will not let me be;
But this will not deter me, and your laws I will keep;
With my whole heart I’ll keep them even when I’m asleep.
70. THE hearts of the wicked, have grown fat… lost their light;
But me LORD forever in your laws I’ll delight.
71. THAT I suffered affliction has turned out to be good;
For that taught me your statutes, which I then understood.
72. THESE laws that you teach me, in my life here on earth;
Are more precious than gold, I can’t measure their worth.
YOD (Y)
73. YOUR hands they have made me, gave me shape, gave me form;
Gave me knowledge and wisdom, your commandments inform.
74. YOU will make all who love you rejoice at my sight;
For your word is my hope, I have faith in your might.
75. YOUR judgments oh LORD, I know they are right;
Your hand of correction helps me live in your light.
LET
76. YOUR merciful kindness be my comfort I pray;
For this you have promised me if I obey.
LET
77. YOUR tender mercies give me comfort and life;
For your law’s my delight, with your blessings it’s rife.
78. LET the wicked be shamed, their pride be embarrassed;
For they’ve treated me badly and with lies I’ve been harassed.
Yet despite this I stay, firmly in your way;
To you I’m devoted, give me strength LORD I pray.
79. LET your faithful, your people, all those who adore you;
Turn to me and together your way we’ll pursue.
80. LET my heart always be, blameless and pure;
As I live by your laws; by example secure.
KAPH (K/C)
81. CHRONIC darkness surrounds me, as I wait your salvation;
Still I hope in your word, same as all of creation.
Your
82. COMFORT I seek LORD, as I scour your word;
Till my weary eyes fail and all becomes blurred.
Your
83. COMMANDMENTS and laws, I have not neglected,
Even though I’m unworthy for the task you selected.
I
84. CANNOT imagine how long I can last,
Won’t you stop my tormentors, who against me are massed?
The
85. CRUEL and haughty have dug pits to enslave me,
Against your commandments they attack me with glee.
Your
86. COMMANDMENTS are good and will last forever,
My torment by the evil, has no cause whatever.
With
87. CRUEL attacks they almost destroyed me,
But I held to your precepts like a well grounded tree.
88. COME quick if you love me, save me in your name,
So forever I’ll keep the decrees you proclaim.
LAMED (L)
The
89. LORD is forever, his existence eternal;
His word rooted firmly in the heavens supernal.
You’re
90. LOYAL and faithful throughout generations,
You established the earth and all of its nations.
Your
91. LAWS to fulfill the earth stands to this day,
For it is your servant, your word to obey.
I
92. LOVE all your teachings, for had it not been so’
I would not have survived, this I truly know.
Your
93. LAWS and your teachings I will never neglect,
For through them my life, you preserve and protect.
94. LORD I’m yours, keep and save me for my soul accepts
Your laws, and your teachings, and your holy precepts.
The
95. LAWLESS, the wicked, all seek my destruction,
But forever I’ll follow your law and instruction.
96. LIMITED is the scope of all things,
Except for your law and the blessings it brings.
MEM (M)
I
97. MEDITATE on your law all day long,
For I love its message, it is righteous and strong.
It
98. MAKES me much stronger than all of my foes,
It stands always beside me keeps my soul in repose.
99. MORE than all of my teachers, those deemed to be wise;
I have gained understanding for your laws are my prize.
100. MORE than all of my elders, I have gained understanding,
For I study your precepts greater wisdom demanding.
101. MY feet always avoid evil ways oh my LORD,
So I’ll never forsake you, and I’ll follow your word.
102. MY heart has not strayed from the judgments you taught me;
My lessons were learned as I sat at your knee.
103. MUCH sweeter than honey are the lessons I’ve learned;
Through the lessons you’ve taught me much good I’ve discerned.
104. MANY hours I spend thinking about your ways;
I’m inspired to shun evil till the end of my days.
NUN (N)
105. NOTHING is more precious, nothing more complete,
Than your word oh my GOD, which casts light on my feet.
106. NOTHING therefore will shake me from the oath I have taken:
To follow your laws from the moment I waken.
I
107. NEED you oh LORD, for I am distressed,
Rescue me as you promised, as your word has professed.
108.NOTWITHSTANDING my sins LORD, my off’rings accept,
Teach me all your commandments, so my sins I’ll reject.
I
109. NEGLECT not your teachings, even when I’m in danger;
To your laws and your precepts I am never a stranger.
110.NOTWITHSTANDING the traps that the wicked have laid,
From your laws and your precepts I never have strayed.
111. NOTHING pleases my heart more than your words and laws;
For they truly define me and correct all my flaws.
112. NOTHING will move me from the laws that you give me,
I will keep them forever, for through them I am free.
SAMEK (S)
I
113. SCORN and despise those whose loyalty’s split;
I myself am committed: to GOD’s laws I submit.
114. SHIELD me from harm, and be my sanctuary;
In your word I find hope, hope that’s exr’ordinary.
115. SCATTER and flee, all you doers of evil;
For I will keep forever GOD’s commandments primeval.
116. SUPPORT me oh LORD, as you promised and vowed;
So that I will live on, and of my hope be proud!
117. SUPPORT me oh LORD and I shall not fail;
Your laws I’ll observe, and forever prevail.
118. SACRED to you are your statutes most dear;
You reject all who spurn them, for their evil is clear.
You
119. SWEEP out like rubbish all the evil on earth,
And for this I adore you, and I have since my birth.
I
120. SHAKE in your presence, I tremble, I am awed;
For your judgments are righteous, and I’m sinful my LORD.
AYIN (I/AY/A/EYE)
121. AYE, I’ve done justice, and I’ve tried to be right;
LORD don’t hand me over to my enemy’s might.
122. ALMIGHTY stand for me, be good to your servant;
Don’t let evil destroy me, with its hatred most fervent.
My
123. EYES became dim as they sought your instruction;
By scouring your words, as I sought my salvation.
124. ALMIGHTY, according, to your mercy deal with me;
Teach me your statutes, and all you decree.
125. AS your faithful servant, give me wisdom to know:
Your words and your precepts; your grace on me bestow.
126. ACT now oh my LORD, don’t delay past this hour;
For the wicked believe that your word has no power.
127. I, however my LORD, your laws do behold,
And I find them more worthy than any fine gold.
128. I know that your wisdom, which you teach me all day,
Is the truth, and it makes me despise every false way.
PE (P)
129. POWER and wonder fill the words that you teach me;
My soul therefore keeps them as it learns to be free.
A
130. POWERFUL message from your words we receive,
They show us the light, thus the truth we perceive.
131. PASSIONTELY, with shortness of breath,
I await your commandments, LORD they keep me from death.
132. PITY me LORD, and grant me your grace,
As you do with all those who your name do embrace.
133. PERMIT not oh LORD, for sin to control me;
Guide my steps and make sure, your goodness I see.
134. PROTECT and redeem me from being oppressed:
For keeping your laws LORD, grant me this request.
135. PLACE your blessings upon me, grace me with your smile;
Teach me your statues so we may reconcile.
136. PITIFUL tears explode from my eyes,
As your laws are defiled by men and their lies.
SADE/TSADDE (S/T/TS)
137. TSADEK/ are you LORD and your judgment’s upright,
For they teach us your way, and they show us the light.
138. TSADEK and righteous are your teachings and laws,
For you’re righteous and faithful, without any flaws.
139. SINCE all of my en’mies have forsaken your laws
My zeal consumes me as I stand for your laws.
140. TSADEK is your word, it is holy and pure;
Therefore I adore it, in it I am secure.
141. SMALL I may be, and I may be despised,
But your words I hold dear, in them I‘m baptized.
142. TSADEK is your nature and it will be forever;
Your commandments are perfect, with no flaws whatsoever.
143. SEVERELY I am anguished and my poor soul is troubled,
Still your laws guide my soul, and my faith is redoubled.
144. TSADEK are your words, they shall keep me forever,
They give me great wisdom, with no fault whatsoever.
QOPH (K/C/Q)
I
145. CRY out to my LORD from the depths of my heart.
My GOD from your laws, I will never depart.
I
146. CRY out to you LORD to give me salvation,
And your laws I will keep for they are my foundation.
I
147. CRY for your help as I rise before morn’
For your word is my hope, each day it’s reborn.
I
148. KEEP watch through the night, my eyes won’t be closed;
As in deep meditation the whole night I’m engrossed.
149. KEEP my prayers in your heart for you’re loving and kind;
For in you and your justice, new strength I will find.
150. CLOSER they come, those who seek my demise;
They reject all your laws, and rely on their lies.
151. CLOSER to me place yourself oh my LORD,
Your commandments are truth, and cannot be ignored.
152. CLEAR and simple is your holy instruction,
I have known it forever and it gives me direction.
RESH (R)
153. REMEMBER My tears LORD, my affliction, my pain;
For I have been faithful, in your laws I remain.
154. REDEEM me oh LORD, take up my cause;
For this you have promised, despite all my flaws.
155. REDEMPTION is far from the minds of the wicked,
For your grace they’ve rejected as their souls are afflicted.
156. REDEEM me Oh LORD for great is your grace,
By your word you have promised, and this word I embrace.
157. RUTHLESS and many: my tormentors and foes;
From your laws they can’t move me, though their hate overflows.
I
158. REACT with disgust at the sight of these traitors,
Who have broken their vows, and became idolaters.
159. REVIVE me oh LORD, for you’re loving and kind,
And you know that I love you, for in you peace I find.
160. RIGHTEOUS are your judgments, forever enduring;
Your word is the truth, and its love is assuring.
SHIN (SH/S)
161. SHAMEFULLY, princes attack me Oh GOD,
Still my heart keeps your word, by its faithfulness awed.
162. SURELY your word is greater than treasure;
I rejoice in its truth, and I live it with pleasure.
163. SHAMEFUL, abhorrent, I find all lies;
But your laws give me love, and they open my eyes.
164. SEVEN times every day, I shall sing your praises,
For your judgment is just, and the innocent raises.
They
165. SHALL have great peace, those who love all your law;
For they’ll never fall, their path has no flaw.
166. SALVATION from you LORD, I seek above all;
So I keep your commandments, I stand firm, I stand tall.
My
167. SOUL loves your words, and keeps them by faith;
They cleanse me from evil in their goodness I’ll bathe.
168. SHALL I not keep your precepts, and all of your laws?
Yes I shall! For my ways are the same as your cause.
TAUT (T)
169. TEACH me Oh LORD! Give me understanding,
My soul cries to you as your word is demanding.
170. TRANSFORM me Oh LORD, give me your deliverance;
My humble petition, I give you with reverence.
171. TEACH me your statutes and I’ll offer my praise;
Songs of praise I shall sing till the end of my days.
172. TONGUE! I command you to speak about GOD and his word!
His commandments are righteous! Make sure they are heard!
173. TAKE my hand in yours LORD, and give me your help;
Protect me Oh LORD, as a lion his whelp.
174. THERE is nothing I long for, more than your salvation;
I delight in your words, they are my inspiration.
175. TAKE my soul in your hands, LORD do not let it die;
It shall praise you forever as it looks to the sky;
For your judgment will help it, this none can deny.
176. TOO long I have wandered, gone astray from your fold;
But I still remember and I uphold your law, So redeem me Oh LORD, my salvation uphold.
Song of Ascents
1. I will lift my eyes to Jerusalem’s hills,
From whence comes my help that solves all my ills.
2. My help comes from GOD who made heaven and earth,
Who has held me upright from the day of my birth.
3. He will not let you stumble, nor your way encumber.
He that looks after you will not rest, will not slumber.
4. Truly LORD GOD of Israel will not slumber nor sleep,
He will watch over you, and his promise will keep.
5. The LORD will protect you; from the sun give you shade:
6. Of the blistering heat you shall not be afraid.
In the dead of the night you shall have no fear,
For GOD lights up the moon to your front and your rear.
7. GOD shall keep you safe, and he shall keep you whole;
He’ll protect you from evil, both your body and soul.
8. The LORD will protect you on both sides of your door,
From this moment on and forevermore.
Song of Ascents.
1. Oh you who dwell in the heavens, above the mighty skies;
Unto you I lift my soul, unto you I lift mine eyes.
2. Just as workers look for instructions to those whom they’re bound to serve,
So too we will follow your guidance, till we find the rest we deserve.
3. Oh LORD have mercy upon us, for we’re covered in shame and in scorn;
4. For the proud and the haughty disdain us,
Make our souls wish we never were born.
Song of Ascents.
1. Those who trust in the LORD, despite trials whatsoever,
Shall be fixed like his mountains, they’ll be grounded forever.
2. As the mountains encompass the city of GOD,
So too round his people the LORD makes his abode:
3. From the blows of the wicked the righteous to shield;
lest they strike back in anger…to iniquity yield.
4. To those who do good, LORD give blessings and good things,
To those who are upright, to whose hearts goodness clings.
5. But those who are evil and choose crooked ways;
GOD will cast them to darkness at the end of their days.
But the people of GOD shall all dwell in peace,
Their joy and their comfort shall forever increase.
Song of Ascents of Solomon.
1. Be it houses or fortune, whatsoever we build;
Without GOD all is pointless, none will be fulfilled.
A night sentry may strive from sleep to refrain,
Without GOD though his efforts are fruitless, in vain.
2. Without seeking GOD’S blessings and help in a matter;
All our efforts are worthless like chaff they will scatter.
But the person whose work GOD has blessed with his might,
Will always have peace, and will sleep through the night.
3. Behold children are his, he bestows at his pleasure;
Of all that’s on earth, they’re his ultimate treasure.
4. Just as archers guide arrows that they send on their way,
So too guide your children, teach them right every day.
5. Happy are parents whose children are right;
For they are their joy, and they are their might.
Song of Ascents.
1. Many a time since the days of our youth, we have been afflicted, and have been abused.
2. “In all truth”’ Isr’el says: “since the days of our youth, we have suffered afflictions, and have been misused”.
“Yet my persecutors did not prevail,
Their efforts, though many, were of no avail”.
3. My enemies lay me face down on the ground,
As with iron they scourge me, with my limbs tightly bound.
But the LORD he is righteous with his sword cuts me free,
5. And my enemies scatter as his power they see.
6. Like the grass that’s removed from the soil that feeds it,
Let my enemies wither and be cast in the pit:
7. For such grass is useless no purpose it serves,
It is worthless and useless no attention deserves.
8. And let no one bless them in the name of the LORD;
Let scorn and derision upon them be poured.
Song of Ascents of David.
1. LORD I’m not pretentious, respect don’t demand;
I don’t interfere in matters beyond me, in matters of import, that I don’t understand.
2. Surely my GOD, I no longer act poorly,
I have quieted my passions, and reflect more maturely.
As a child weans itself from the milk of its mother,
I have opened my eyes and with vain things don’t bother.
3. Let the people of GOD put their hope in the LORD;
And not in themselves, nor the power of the sword.
Song of Ascents of David.
1. Look how pleasant it is to live life united,
Together as siblings: with this God is delighted.
2. For this is GOD’s blessing, that’s poured over our heads;
In abundance it soaks us, as around us it spreads.
It soaks through our clothing and into our bones;
Blessing the humble, and the Kings on their thrones.
3. As the dew on the mountains that GOD’s city surround,
These are blessings from GOD in whom they are found.
He bestows them on us, till the end of all days;
For these blessings we thank him and we give him our praise.
1. Praise the LORD all his servants, praise his wonderful name;
2. Praise him you his priests, and his message proclaim.
3. Praise the LORD for he’s good: let everyone hear;
Praise him in song such as pleases the ear.
4. For the LORD has picked you Isr’el to be his great treasure;
And he blesses your children beyond any measure.
5. For I know GOD is great, that he is above all;
There is no GOD beside him, no nothing at all.
6. He does as he pleases in the heavenly spaces;
On earth, in the seas, and in all the dark places.
7. He sends water as vapor from the earth to the sky;
He makes lightning and rain, and sends winds from on high.
8. He who punished all Egypt, from the West to the East;
By striking its first-born, both of man and of beast.
9. By punishing Pharaoh with plagues and with wonders;
Till he heeded his voice, as loudly it thunders.
10. He struck down great kings, as well as great nations;
Shook them down to their core, to their very foundations.
11. The kingdoms of Canaan GOD destroyed, took their land:
And gave them to Isr’el, by his very own hand.
12. He gave Isr’el this land for all generations;
For he loved them above all peoples and nations.
13. Thus the name of the LORD shall live on forever
Throughout all generations forever and ever.
14. For GOD will judge his people: bring their foes to account;
He will care for his people, and his grace will abound.
15. The heathen make idols out of silver and gold;
With their own hands they make them to have and to hold.
16. They have given them mouths, they have given them eyes,
But they can’t speak or see, these idols are lies.
17. These idols have mouths, and these idols have ears,
But their mouths have no breath, and none of them hears.
18. These idols are empty, these idols are useless;
And like them, those who made them, are foolish and worthless.
19. But you, oh his people give praise to the LORD;
20. Bless him and praise him let him be your reward.
21. Blessed be GOD, the LORD of creation;
The LORD GOD of Isr’el, and the whole human nation.
1. By the mighty Euphrates, Babylon’s river,
We fell down and wept, our prayers to deliver.
As we yearned for our Zion, our city, our pride;
As we cried to the LORD for our tears to be dried.
2. Our harps and our flutes we hid up in the trees,
For our sorrows were great as the billowing seas,
3. And our captors required us to make merry and sing
They required of us music, and joy to them bring.
They that abused us laid our city to waste,
Ordered songs of our nation as we stood there disgraced.
4. But how can we sing the songs of our LORD,
In a land where we’re captive, in a land far abroad?
5. Oh city of David, that stands on GOD’s hill,
If I ever forget you may my hands lose their skill.
6. Oh City of David if I ever forget you,
If over your love I choose something new,
Let the tongue in my mouth, dry up and shrivel,
Let it be weak of strength, let it stutter and drivel.
7. Remember Oh LORD, how we were attacked,
By the nation of Edom which struck at our back;
How with Ne-bu-chadnezzar they attacked our nation:
As they shouted in joy: “Burn this city and raze it, down to its foundation!”
8. Oh you daughter of Babylon, may you be rewarded,
With the same vicious measure that to us you afforded.
May you be destroyed and your conqueror blessed,
May you never find peace, may you never find rest.
9. Blessed shall be he that cuts off your head,
And leaves you in ruins, and leaves you for dead.
To the chief musician.
A psalm of David
1. LORD from you I’ve no secrets, you have searched me and known me;
There is nothing inside me that you cannot see.
2. You know all about me, all my everyday doings,
When I’m sitting or standing; all my comings and goings.
My thoughts and my feelings, all of them you can see:
No matter how close, or how far I may be.
3. You have cleared my path, your protection surrounds me;
In peace I lie down: to my safety you see.
4. There’s no word in my tongue which I have not spoken,
That you know not about, whether blessed or broken.
5. LORD your goodness surrounds me, from my front and my back,
With your own hand you claim me, I am safe from attack.
6. Such intimate knowledge I can hardly imagine, my mind is too small, I cannot comprehend;
For the barriers of physics I cannot surmount, I cannot push through, I cannot transcend.
7. There is nowhere I go, that your spirit can’t find me,
There is no place to hide, that you cannot see.
8. If I go up to heaven, you are right there beside me,
If I fall down to hell, right beside me you’ll be.
9. I may run with the speed of the dawn’s early light;
In the depths of the seas, I may hide from your sight,
10. But always you’ll find me, and take hold of my hand;
You will always uphold me and make sure that I stand.
11. I may think that the darkness will keep me well hidden,
But even night’s darkness will be overridden.
12. Yes even the darkness can hide nothing from you,
It will be bright as day, as my soul you pursue.
13. Even inside my mother, in the warmth of her womb,
You knew me and formed me, and made my life bloom.
14. Forever I’ll praise you, for I’m carefully made;
I am wonderf’lly made…with your love and your care being fully displayed.
15. The beginnings of life, and the mysteries of birth:
are guided by you, from the depths of the earth;
my conception’s no secret, no mystery for you;
for you formed and you shaped me, as in darkness I grew.
16. For before I took shape, you already knew
All of my limbs, before ever they grew.
17. Oh GOD all of your thoughts towards me have been good,
For my innermost wants you well understood.
The sum of your caring, on my account,
Oh my GOD they are more, than I could ever count.
18. If I even attempted to count them my GOD,
They are more than the sand; Oh my GOD I am awed:
Whenever I wake, you are right by my side,
And throughout the cold night my soul’s satisfied.
19&20. Surely GOD, you will save me from the evil men’s hand:
For they blaspheme your name, and against you they stand.
Therefore leave me in peace you violent men, depart from my presence, in God’s name I command!
21. LORD am I not offended by all those who hate thee?
Am I not upset by all who rise against thee?
22. I hate them with passion, they are my enemies;
I will fight them forever, for unending centuries.
23. Examine me LORD, and search deep in my heart,
24. If you find any evil, stop it quick oh my LORD, from the path of your goodness do not let me depart.
A psalm of David.
1. LORD I cry unto you, may your answer be speedy
Put your ear to my lips, for LORD I am needy.
2. Let my prayers waft upwards, like the smoke from the incense;
And our uplifted arms be our offering hence.
3. Keep watch oh my LORD, make my mouth keep still;
Put a seal on my lips so vain words they don’t spill.
4. Do not let my heart lean towards wicked things;
Nor partake of evil with no man: even kings.
5. Instead let the righteous punish and strike me,
For its done out of kindness to correct and rebuke me.
It shall be a blessing to refresh and correct me;
It shall not break my spirit, nor in anyway harm me.
As for evil rulers, I pray GOD reproves them,
Both them and their works I pray GOD will condemn.
6. And when GOD in good time, will these rulers replace.
They’ll remember my words and GOD’s love will embrace.
7. For they’ll see that their end will be sorrow and death,
As their bodies are emptied and are left without breath.
8. But my eyes are on you LORD, for in you is my trust;
For without you my soul is nothing but dust.
9. Keep me from temptation from the snares set before me;
Help me oh LORD, their true nature to see.
10. Let the wicked man fall into his own snare,
Save me oh my LORD, hear my plea, hear my prayer.
A Psalm of David.
1. Oh LORD hear my prayer, pay heed to my cries;
For you’re faithful and righteous! In my aide LORD, arise.
2. Let not your justice, be as I have earned,
For none living on earth have righteousness learned.
3. My foes persecute me relentlessly LORD,
They have broken my body, spilled my blood to the ground.
By their hands I’ve become, no better than dead;
They have cast me to darkness through fear and through dread.
4. My spirit within me is broken and shattered,
My heart is in shambles, from having been battered.
5. I remember the days, that now seem long ago;
When my soul was at peace, and dread did not know.
I think of those days, of what you did for me;
Of the works of your hands, of what you let me see.
6. And as memories flood me I reach out to you;
My soul thirsts for you, as the earth for the dew.
David’s Psalm of praise.
1. I will extol you Oh my GOD, I’ll bless your name forever.
2. Every day I’ll praise your name in all that I endeavor.
3. Great is the LORD, give him great praise.
His greatness unquestioned, till the end of all days.
4. Each generation will let the next know;
Of the great acts of GOD, and will praises bestow.
5. I will focus my thoughts and I will meditate;
On your wonderful works and your deeds that are great.
6. All people’s of earth shall speak of your might;
That’s displayed in your acts, all your works they recite.
And I, even I, so lowly and poor,
Will declare that you’re great, that your works will endure.
7. All shall speak in remembrance of your goodness most holy;
All shall sing of your righteousness, goodness, and glory.
8. GOD is full of compassion and he is most gracious;
He is slow to anger and his love is tenacious.
9. He is good to all and his mercies are tender;
10. They are fully displayed in his works and their splendor.
11. All creation shall speak of your kingdom, its glory;
They shall speak of your power, your power most holy.
12. They shall speak to all people, all women and men;
They shall speak of his greatness, again and again.
13. Your kingdom’s forever, it has no limitations;
Your power endures throughout all generations.
14. God upholds all those who stumble, who fall;
He raises the lowly, the humble and small.
15. All creation looks to you with prayers most pressing;
And in your good time, you give all your blessing.
16. You open your hand, and your blessings you bring,
Be it to the peasant, be it to the king.
17. The LORD he is righteous in all of his ways;
He is always most gracious, and deserving of praise.
18.. To all who call on him he is close, he is near;
To those calling sincerely, he will always appear.
19. To all those who fear him, he will meet their desire;
He will hear their prayers, and will save them from fire.
20. All those who love him, the LORD will preserve;
But the wicked will pay, their fate they deserve.
21. I shall sing praise to GOD, I shall do so forever!
All creation shall bless him, forever and ever.
1. Praise the LORD oh my people for it’s right that you should;
For singing his praise is righteous and good.
2. He rebuilds Jeru’slem holy city of GOD;
And gathers his outcasts who are scattered abroad.
3. He heals and makes whole those of broken heart;
Their wounds he will bind and his healing impart.
4. He has named every star and numbered each one;
He gave each one its brightness as he did with the sun.
5. Great is our LORD and great is his might;
His wisdom is infinite…and is bright as the light.
6. He lifts up the humble, the meek, and the lowly;
And he brings down the arrogant, the cruel, the unholy.
7. Sing him your thanks for all of these things.
Praise him with music, with windpipes, and strings.
8. Praise him who stretches the clouds end to end;
And prepares them for rain, to the ground to send;
Who makes the grass grow that covers the mountains;
And springs forth the waters from the depths of the fountains.
9. Praise him who gives food to all beasts ‘neath the sky;
Who feeds the young ravens as towards him they cry.
10. The LORD’s not impressed with the strength of the horse;
Nor the strong legs of man, that pump with great force.
11. But he takes great delight in those who fear GOD;
Who have hope in his mercy, and are thoroughly awed.
12. Bless him Jerus’lem, for you’re loved by the LORD;
For upon you oh Zion, his blessings are poured.
13. He protects you Jerus’lem with the strength of his arm;
All within you he blesses and protects from all harm.
14. He keeps peace at your borders, and prospers your fields.
With the best of all wheat, with the best of all yields.
15. His command travels swiftly as he sends it to earth;
As it travels the world, as it circles its girth.
16. He covers the earth with a blanket of snow;
And like ashes he spreads lacy frost here below.
17. He rains down in pieces, cold ice from above;
Who can weather such cold, without GOD’s tender love?
18. He sends out commands, melts the ice and the snow,
He makes the winds blow, and the rivers to flow.
19. To Jacob he promised and made him this vow:
To bless him and keep him and with riches endow.
He gave Isr’el his statutes, his commandments, his laws;
He gives it his judgment and takes up its cause.
20. He has done this, for no other nation;
They shall not face his judgment, for they have his salvation.
For all that he’s done, for the blessings he’s poured:
Praise him all his people, praise GOD who is LORD!
1. Give praise to the LORD, praise him by song;
With the rest of his saints in a voice that is strong.
2. Let Isr’el rejoice in GOD his creator,
Let his children be joyful for no other is greater.
3. Let them worship in dance: his people, his kings;
Let them worship with timbrels, and the harps of ten strings.
4. For the LORD takes delight in his people and nation;
He will crown the meek, with his own salvation.
5. Let his people have joy in him who is holy;
Even when they’re at rest, let them sing of his glory.
6. Let their mouths be sweet, with the praise of the LORD;
Let them go forth, with a two edged sword:
7. To stand up for justice and execute judgment,
To punish the wicked, and make them repentant.
8. To bind them in chains, and justice to bring:
To anyone evil, be they noble or king.
9. Let them go forth and execute judgments,
For thus it is written in the laws and commandments.
To his people, and saints, this honor is given;
Stand up and praise him, let your voice reach to heaven.
A psalm of David.
1: LORD I’ve set strong my heart, I have fixed it on you.
With my praise and my songs, your love I’ll pursue.
2. Early I rise to greet the new morn;
As I sing praise to you, with the strings and the horn.
3. I will sing to all peoples of all generations;
I will sound your praises to all of the nations.
4. Your mercy is great and extends past the skies;
And your truth stretches out, beyond sight of our eyes.
5. You are exalted, throughout heaven and earth;
And your glory is pure, as creation at birth.
6. So I may be delivered, and I may be redeemed;
Save me by your hand, if worthy I’m deemed.
7. For thus said the LORD, in his holy voice:
“OVER SHECHEM AND SUCCOTH I WILL REJOICE:
FOR THEY ARE MY DOMINION AND I’LL DO AS I WILL;
I WILL MEASURE AND ORDER AND MY PLANS WILL FULFILL.
8. GILEAD AND MANASSEH ARE MINE I HAVE SAID;
AND EPHRAIM I USE TO COVER MY HEAD.
JUDAH I’LL USE, MY LAWS TO MAKE KNOWN;
IN MY NAME HE WILL JUDGE, HIS WORD IS MY OWN.
9. IF I WISH OVER MOAB, I WILL WASH MY FEET;
LIKE A DIRTY OLD SHOE, EDOM I WILL TREAT.
OVER PHILISTIA I WILL TRIUMPH COMPLETELY;
I WILL DEAL WITH THEM, IN MY OWN WAY DISCRETELY.”
10. Oh LORD who will lead us against Edom in vict’ry?
Even though we have failed you, throughout all of our hist’ry;
11. Won’t you forgive us and come back once more,
And lead our armies as you did once before?
12. Give us help from our troubles, for man’s help is useless;
While with your help we’ll triumph, and see great success.
A psalm of David.
1. the LORD GOD the FATHER, said to LORD GOD the SON:
“SIT BY MY RIGHT HAND TILL YOUR ENEMY’S DONE;
TILL I’VE MADE HIM YOUR FOOTSTOOL UNDER YOUR FEET;
TILL THE VICT’RY I GIVE YOU IS SECURE AND COMPLETE.”
2. “YOUR WORD AND YOUR POWER SHALL EXTEND PAST THIS LAND;
YOU SHALL RULE THIS WHOLE WORLD, ALL SHALL BE IN YOUR HAND.
YOU SHALL RULE IN THE MIDST OF ALL OF YOUR FOES;
NONE WILL RISE UP AGAINST YOU NOT ONE WILL OPPOSE.
3. OF THEIR OWN VOLITION ALL OF YOUR PEOPLE COME FORTH, TO TAKE UP YOUR BANNER, TO TAKE UP YOUR CAUSE;
THEY SHALL BE YOUR MOST POWERFUL ARMY MY LORD, FOR THEY ALL WILL BE HOLY AND WITHOUT ANY FLAWS.
ON THAT DAY OF THE HEIGHT OF YOUR POWER OH LORD, YOUR GLORY TO ALL WILL BE SHOWN AND REVEALED;
AND JUST AS YOU WERE AT THE TIME OF CREATION, SO YOU WILL APPEAR FOR IN GOD YOU ARE SEALED.
4. THIS VOW GOD MAKES, WHICH FOREVER ENDURES,
YOU’RE A PRIEST OF HIGH ORDER WHO SALVATION ASSURES.
LIKE THE PRIEST KING OF SALEM, A HIGH PRIEST LIKE NO OTHER;
THE PRIEST MELCHIZEDEK WHO BELONGS TO GOD’S ORDER.
5. GOD SHALL BE BY YOUR RIGHT HAND ON THE DAY OF HIS WRATH
AS HE STRIKES DOWN GREAT KINGS WHO HAVE STRAYED FROM HIS PATH.
6. HE SHALL JUDGE ALL THE EVIL THAT INHABIT THE EARTH.
HE SHALL MEASURE AND WEIGH THEM AND GIVE THEM THEIR WORTH.
THEY WILL RISE TO DO BATTLE BUT THEY WILL BE CUT DOWN.
NOTHING WILL SAVE THEM NOT EVEN THEIR CROWN.
7. BUT HE WILL BE REFRESHED IN THE MIDST OF THE FIGHT.
HE SHALL LIFT UP HIS HEAD ALL SHALL SEE HIS GREAT MIGHT.”
A note about Psalm 112.
This Psalm is one of three psalms that are structured as acrostics. The others are psalms 111 (the one immediately preceding), and psalm 119.
Each line of this psalm and psalm 111 represents a letter of the Hebrew alphabet (in order), and that particular line begins with the letter that is represented by that line.
I have tried to imitate this structure, and I have identified the particular letter at the beginning of each section, along with the sound it makes.
I have tried to begin each line with the particular letter that is represented by that line. However in trying to do this I have been confronted with several challenges, and I have had to be a little creative. Call it creative license if you will. For example in some cases, there is no corresponding sound/letter in the English alphabet, such as Aleph. In those cases I just assigned to it the closest sound/letter of the English alphabet, that I thought would be appropriate.
In some instances there are letters like “HE” and “HETH”, which have different sound in Hebrew but are similar to “H” in English, so I have used their English counterparts for more than one section. So you will find two sections devoted to the English “H”.
Finally, I have used one (or at the most two) word connectors to connect one line to the other, which do not start with the letter represented. For example for the line that represents Bet (B), I started it with WHO, in order to connect to the word bestow.
For those concerned with purity of form, please forgive my liberties. I hope you enjoy this in the spirit it was written.
ALEPH (A)
1. AT peace are all those who fear the LORD;
BET (B)
Who
BESTOW their devotion on keeping GOD’s word.
GHIMEL (G)
2. GOD will make their descendants to be great in this land
DALETH (D)
DAY and night they are righteous blessed by GOD’s very hand.
HE (H)
3. HIS house will be filled with riches and wealth,
WAW (W)
He
WILL always be righteous and upright, without stealth.
ZAIN (Z)
His
4. ZEAL and devotion will keep darkness away;
HETH (H)
HIS grace and his kindness will light up his day.
TETH (T)
5. THOSE who spend time in goodness, helping those in distress;
YOD (Y)
YAHWEH’s love will receive and will find great success.
KAPH (K/C)
They
6. CONSTANTLY stand in pow’r and unshaken;
LAMED (L)
They
LEAD upright lives their names never forsaken.
MEM (M)
7. MYIRIAD evil will not cause them fear;
NUN (N)
For their
NATURE is strong and their faith is sincere.
SAMEK (S)
They
8. STAND fast unafraid with their hearts resolute;
AIN (A)
ALL their foes will be vanquished through their faith absolute.
PE (P)
To the
9. POOR they are gen’rous, they give what they can
SADE (S/SH)
GOD
SHALL honor them greatly before angels and man.
QOPH (K/C)
The
10. KILLERS, and thieves, and the wicked, shall see this;
RESH (R)
And
REACT with frustration, and like snakes they will hiss;
SCHIN (SH)
They
SHALL rage in their anger but their courage shall fail,
TAU (T)
THEIR hopes and their plans shall be of no avail.
1. When from Egypt’s cold grip Israel was redeemed,
and they savored the freedom of which they had dreamed,
2. Judah’s tents were anointed as GOD’s dwelling on earth,
All of Israel knelt to him in its day of rebirth.
3. The sea recognized this and opened its waters;
And the great River Jordan pulled back from its borders.
4. The great, solid mountains gamboled like young rams,
And the hills skipped and danced like young, frisky, lambs.
5. Oh great sea what caused you to part your great waters?
And you mighty Jordan to pull back your borders?
6. And you mighty mountains that you frolicked like rams?
Even you little hills that you danced like the lambs?
7. Tremble all earth at the presence of GOD:
The LORD GOD of Jacob! In his presence be awed!
8. Who turned solid rock into cool and calm the waters;
Making waters spring forth for our sons and our daughters.
1. I love my LORD with all my heart for he has heard my
voice.
2. Until I die, I’ll call his name, and in his love
rejoice.
3. Death’s cold, hard, grip had seized my hand and pulled
Me to its realm;
It’s troubles and its sorrows, my soul did overwhelm.
4. But then I called upon his name, I called upon the LORD:
“Deliver me!” I cried, “Oh LORD”, and he heard as I implored.
5. The Lord is righteous, full of grace, and he is filled
With mercy!
6. I had been lower than the dust and from that state he
Saved me.
For he preserves the simple, for whom he shows great mercy.
7. My soul at last is comforted, its peace it can embrace;
For GOD has been most generous, he has blessed me with his
grace.
8. For you oh LORD have saved me from the darkness of my
death;
You have saved me from my tears, and you have restored my
breath.
9. I remain among the living where I’ll walk beside my God;
I’ll remember his great mercy and forever will be awed.
10. I had faith in GOD’S great mercy so I turned to him
and said:
“Oh my GOD I am afflicted, GOD preserve me from the
dead!”
11. In my pain I lost my patience, I lashed out at all my
friends;
In frustration called them liars… Oh GOD help me make amends.
12. For the goodness GOD has shown me, how can I repay
it’s worth?
What is there that I can give him, that’s not his upon this earth?
13. I will give him my devotion and accept his offered
Grace;
I will call on him forever and his love I will embrace.
14. In the presence of his people I will now fulfill my
Vows,
I will follow him forever and his word I will espouse.
15. Precious in the sight of GOD, are his people: all his
Saints;
And their deaths affect him deeply, his deep pain has no constraints.
16. Oh LORD truly I’m your servant, just like my own
mother was:
You have freed me from death’s bondage…pried me loose from its cold claws.
17. I will offer you thanksgiving, sacrifice unto your
name;
18. All the vows that I have offered, I will keep…your
love proclaim.
19. May your people always praise you, may we show you
great acclaim.
1. Give thanks all ye people to the LORD who is yours,
For his mercy is great and forever endures.
2. Let Israel say in a voice that assures:
“His mercy is great and forever endures!”
3. Let the whole house of Aaron in a voice that assures
Shout: “His mercy is great and forever endures!”
4. Let all those who fear GOD in a voice reassuring
Say: “His mercy is great and forever enduring!”
5. In my time of distress! My dark hour of need;
I called on the LORD and he came with great speed!
He delivered my soul, set me firm on my feet:
On firm, level ground; my deliverance complete.
6. The LORD is on my side: he’s my shield, he’s my spear;
Therefore no man can harm me; nothing will I fear.
7. The LORD fights for me, he is my greatest ally;
He shall vanquish my foes and my soul satisfy.
8. It is wiser to trust in the help of the LORD
Than to trust in mere men, and their skills with their sword.
9. It is better to trust in the help of the LORD,
Than in princes and kings and the help they afford.
10. I have been surrounded by enemy nations;
But with GOD I’ll destroy them! We’ll uproot their foundations.
11: They surround me oh LORD, they lay siege to my nation;
But with GOD I’ll destroy them! We’ll uproot their foundation.
12. They surround me like bees, as they swarm all around me;
But with fire you chased them from their wrath set me free.
Through the name of the LORD their destruction I’ll see.
Under my GOD’s protection forever I’ll be.
13. With brute strength they attacked me, pushed me down to the ground!
But my GOD held me up, made my feet to rebound.
14. The LORD is my strength, and he is my song;
Forever I’ll sing, that to him I belong.
15. In the tents of the righteous there is joy and salvation;
For the right hand of GOD, champions their liberation!
16. The right hand of GOD is compared to no other,
A more valiant defender there cannot be another.
17. GOD won’t let me die, he will let me live;
To his work I’ll bear witness and praises I’ll give.
18. GOD has punished me harshly but he has let me live.
My soul he’s redeemed and my sins did forgive.
19. From the path of the righteous, GOD keeps me from straying;
And I will walk on it, his wishes obeying.
20. For this is the path that belongs to the LORD;
Which the righteous do walk towards their reward.
21. You have answered my prayers and become my salvation;
And for this I shall praise you till the end of creation.
22. The least of your children whom your nation rejects;
Has become our redemption, which the whole world respects.
23. No one but you LORD could have done such a thing;
That amazes the world, whether pauper or king.
24. This is your day LORD! Which you LORD have made!
A day of rejoicing with your glory displayed.
25. Oh GOD save us now, be with us I pray;
Bless our lives, make us prosper, I beseech you today.
[NOTE TO THE READER: THE FOLLOWING VERSES 26-29 HAVE TWO MEANINGS. FIRST IS BLESSED THE BELIEVER WHO COMES IN GOD’S NAME. THE SECOND I BELIEVE REFERS TO THE MESSIAH].
26. Bless’d is the one, who comes in GOD’s name;
As we also bless you and your name we proclaim.
27. For GOD is the LORD, and he gives us his light;
To cast away darkness and show us what’s right.
Redeem our sins, and your sacrifice make…
On the horns of the altar where death’s hold you will break.
28. Oh LORD you’re my GOD and forever I’ll praise you!
You are my GOD and my praise will be true.
29. All people and Nations give thanks to the LORD;
For his love is eternal and on us has been poured!
Song of Ascents
1. I cried to the LORD in my deepest distress,
and he heard as I cried, as I prayed for redress.
2. Deliver my soul LORD from the lies of my foes;
from their tongues of deceit. All their evils expose.
3. Oh you lying tongues what will be your reward?
What shall happen to you at the hand of the LORD?
4. Like a sharp, jagged, arrow your judgment will tear you;
as your lies spread like fire, so your judgment shall burn you.
5. Woe is me for I live among nations
Who are evil and cruel, and destroy GOD’s creations.
6. For too long I have dwelt among those who hate peace;
7. when I tell them of peace, my torment they increase.
Song of Ascents. Of David.
1. My heart always rejoices and is glad beyond measure;
When I’m asked to GOD’s house for its always a pleasure.
2. Our feet shall be planted within GOD’s holy city.
3. A well structured city so solid and pretty
4. For that’s where the tribes go, the tribes of our LORD,
To give thanks, to give worship, to have blessings restored.
5. For that’s where the throne is, that of our GOD most awesome;
6. There w’ell pray for your peace, there we’ll prosper and blossom.
7. Within these holy walls, may your peace be abundant;
May all prosper and grow, with your blessings redundant.
8. For the sake of our sisters and the sake of our brothers,
May your peace reign forever, for our sons and our daughters.
9. Because our GOD resides there, and will do so forever;
For its welfare and peace, I will always endeavor.
Song of Ascents of David.
1. If the LORD GOD of Isr’el had not been by our side;
Had not fought our battles, had not been our guide;
2. If the LORD was not with us when we were attacked,
3. Long ago we’d have perished, our homes looted and sacked.
4. We could not have resisted the ravaging flood;
And the earth would be gorged with our tears and our blood.
5. for the cruel, mighty waters, that are full of despair;
Would have drowned our souls; would have drowned our prayer.
6. Blessed be the LORD, who did not give us up,
To drink bitter waters from our enemy’s cup.
7. As a bird that escapes from a trap that had held it;
My soul flies away and won’t have to submit.
8. We will trust then in GOD, who made heaven and earth.
He has been true and faithful from the day of our birth.
Song of Ascents.
1. When the LORD once again did his people redeem;
We were in a stupor, as though in a dream.
2. But when it sunk in, our mouths burst with laughter;
Our tongues burst in singing of our freedom hereafter.
And all nations who witnessed, knew that GOD did this thing:
Salvation and freedom, for his people to bring.
3. The LORD has done great things for us, and we’re glad;
And as long as we hold him his blessings he’ll add.
4. LORD complete our deliverance, make us free as a river;
Complete our redemption and salvation deliver.
5. All those who through tears, nurtured your word;
Despite hardships and sorrows remained undeterred,
Now reap their reward, with hearts bursting with joy;
The fruits of their faith, they now fully enjoy.
6. All those who kept faith, despite all of their sorrows;
Will be harvesting joy, throughout all their tomorrows.
Song of Ascents.
1. Blessed are they who worship our GOD,
Who walk in his ways and by his might are awed.
2. The fruits of their labours they shall reap and enjoy;
They shall be well, they shall be full of joy.
3. Your home and your children shall be fruitful and blessed;
Your homes lack for nothing, you shall have all the best.
4. This shall be the lot of all those who fear GOD;
Who worship and love him, and by his word are awed.
5. In the city of David you shall live and be blessed;
Jerusalem’s glory you shall see at its best.
6. Oh yes, generations you shall see and enjoy;
Your grand-children you’ll guide, in peace and in joy.
Song of Ascents.
1. Unto you LORD I cry from my depths of despair,
2. Oh LORD hear my voice, of my cries be aware.
3. If our measure of sin you take into account,
Then who can be saved? Who can stand on your mount?
4. But you temper with mercy your judgments severe,
So the fruits of our sins we will know and we’ll fear.
5. I wait on you LORD, and my soul does too:
My hope, my salvation, all rest upon you.
6. More eagerly than, those who wait for the daybreak
My soul waits on you LORD, and no rest will it take:
Yes more eagerly than those who keep watch at night,
Who scour the darkness to catch the first light.
7. Let all of GOD’s people turn to him their attention,
For in him there is mercy and in him there’s redemption.
8. And the sins of their children both born and unborn,
He shall redeem, for thus he has sworn.
PSALM 132 (13th OF 15 SONGS OF ASCENTS)
Song of Ascents.
1. LORD don’t forget David, and all his afflictions;
2. And the oath he swore to you, making clear his intentions:
3. “I will not rest in comfort, nor visit my bed;
4. I will not rest my eyes, nor lay down my head;
5. Till I’ve built you a temple, for you Oh most HOLY,
Where your people can worship, ‘neath the light of your Glory”.
6. LORD we searched for your ark while we were at Ephrata, for you had no home, like a man with no roots;
Then we searched and we found you, as you dwelt in your tents, in the fields and the meadows…encamped in the woods.
7. We will enter your tent LORD, and pray at your feet,
We will worship your name, and your mercy entreat;
8. Arise Oh LORD and enter your rest
With the strength of your ark, with which we are blessed.
9. Let all of your priests in righteousness dress,
With loud shouts let your faithful, their gladness express.
10. For the sake of your David, your servant most loyal,
Whom you took as a shepherd, and made him most royal;
Do not turn your face away from his descendants,
For the faithful today are his children, his remnants.
11. For you’ve sworn to David, and to David alone,
His descendants will always, sit on Israel’s throne:
12: “IF YOUR CHILDREN SHALL FOLLOW THE WORDS THAT I TEACH THEM;
KEEP FAITH WITH MY COVENANT, AND EVIL CONDEMN;
THEN I SHALL BE WITH THEM, AND BLESS THEM FOREVER;
THEY SHALL SIT ON YOUR THRONE AND NOTHING SHALL MOVE THEM, NOTHING AT ALL, NOTHING WHATSOEVER.
13. FOR I HAVE CHOSEN ZION, IT IS MY HABITATION;
14. I WILL REST HERE FOREVER I HAVE MADE YOU MY NATION.
15. ALL OF ITS PEOPLE I SHALL BLESS FOREVER;
I SHALL BLESS THEIR PROVISIONS, AND BLESS ALL THEY ENDEAVOR.
HER POOR SHALL NOT HUNGER THEY SHALL ALWAYS BE FED;
THEY WILL ALWAYS HAVE FOOD, THEY WILL ALWAYS HAVE BREAD.
16. ALL HER PRIESTS WILL BE HOLY, THEY SHALL KNOW MY SALVATION;
WITH LOUD SHOUTS ALL THE FAITHFUL WILL SHOW JOY AS A NATION.
17. THERE I WILL MAKE HIS DESCENDANTS TO GROW;
I WILL GIVE THEM MY LIGHT, AND MY WORDS THEY WILL KNOW.
18. ALL OF HIS ENEMIES I’LL COVER IN SHAME;
BUT HIS CROWN WILL BE STRONG, AND I’LL HONOR HIS NAME”.
Song of Ascents.
1. Give great praise to the LORD, you his servants most holy;
As you stand in the darkness reflecting his glory.
2. As you stand in the temple and lift your hands high;
Give praise to our LORD, as you stretch to the sky.
3. May the LORD who made heaven and earth…all creation,
Pour his blessings upon you and the whole of your nation.
1. Give thanks to the LORD who salvation assures;
For above all he’s good, and his mercy endures.
2. Give thanks to our LORD, for there’s no other GOD;
His mercy’s forever, his nature unflawed.
3. Give thanks to the LORD for his mercy endures;
His mercy’s forever and salvation assures.
4. To GOD who alone has shown us great deeds;
Give him thanks, for his mercy, all others exceeds.
5. To GOD who by wisdom made the heavens supernal;
Give him thanks for his mercy is vast and eternal.
6. To GOD who from water brought forth the dry land;
Give thanks for his mercy forever will stand.
7. To GOD who made light with no help whatsoever;
Give him thanks for his mercy lasts forever and ever.
8. He who ordered the day…to the sun gave the power;
Thank him for his mercies forever will tower.
9. The moon and the stars he ordered for night;
10. His mercy is great and forever shines bright.
10. To him who struck Egypt and all its first born;
For his mercy’s forever, to this he has sworn.
11. For thus he brought Isr’el out of bondage forever;
His mercy is great, and diminishes never.
12. With his strong arm he saved them with the power of his hand;
For his mercy is great and forever will stand.
13. He who parted the sea with a wave of his hand;
His mercy is great and forever will stand.
14. Who made Isr’el pass through the middle of it…
His mercy endures and never will quit.
15. But he drowned their pursuers in the midst of the sea;
His mercy’s forever for all nations to see.
16. He who led all his people through the desolate land;
His mercy’s forever and forever will stand.
17. To him who smote nations, and struck down their kings;
For his mercy’s forever and salvation it brings.
18. He struck down great kings with his might and his power;
For his mercy endures, and above all will tower.
19. The king of the Amorites GOD left him for dead;
For his mercy is great and never will end.
20. And Og king of Bashan was brought to demise;
For God’s mercy’s forever and never it dies.
21. And GOD gave to Isr’l their wealth and their land;
For his mercy endures and forever will stand.
22. He gave it to Isr’el to be theirs forever;
For his mercy is great, with no end whatsoever.
23. He never forsakes us, and is with us forever;
His mercy endures with no end whatsoever.
24. From the hands of our enemies our lives he’s redeemed;
For his mercy’s forever unlike anything dreamed.
25. He gives food and gives life to all of creation;
And his mercy’s forever till the last generation.
26. Oh give thanks to our GOD now and forever;
For his mercy endures with no end whatsoever.
A psalm of David
1. You alone GOD I’ll praise, with all of my heart,
For all others are false, I will not take their part.
2. I will worship and praise you in your temple most holy,
For you’re loving and kind, and your word is my glory.
3. On the day that I cried, you answered my call;
You uplifted my heart, and you strengthened my soul.
4. All the kings of the earth, shall praise you Oh LORD,
For the words from our mouth cannot be ignored.
5. Yes they’ll sing and rejoice in the ways of the LORD,
For great is his glory, which upon us is poured.
6. Even though he’s almighty, he is close to the lowly,
But the vain and the haughty he rejects as unholy.
7. Even when I’m surrounded by hardships and trouble,
You will hold me up, and my strength will redouble:
You will rise to protect me from the wrath of my foes,
Your right hand shall save me from my enemy’s blows.
8. The LORD will make perfect all the things that affect me:
He will bless and protect: with my eyes this I’ll see:
For his mercy endures and forever it stands
LORD do not forsake me: the work of your hands.
To the chief musician.
A psalm of David.
1: From all persons of evil, keep me safe LORD today;
From the violent person, keep me safe everyday;
2. From people who scheme of mischief galore;
From people who gather together for war;
3. From the person whose venom is as sharp as a snake’s;
Whose lips and whose mouths of evil partakes…
4. Keep me oh LORD, from the hands of the wicked.
Keep me safe from the violence of those who are crooked.
5. These proud, wicked, people, have laid out their traps;
They plan to ensnare me and watch me collapse…
6. I said to the LORD: Oh you are my GOD;
Hear my cry of distress, even though I am flawed.
7. Oh my GOD, Oh my LORD; Oh my strength of salvation,
You cover my head as I fight for our nation.
8. Deny them Oh LORD, their evil desire;
Lest they think they are righteous…to more evil aspire.
9. As for the leaders of those who besiege me,
Let them drown in their mischief…their demise let them see.
10. Let hot burning coals fall on top of their heads,
In the pits of the damned, let them make their own beds.
11. Let not one evil person be established on earth,
Let the violent man die, from the day of his birth.
12. I know that the LORD saves the poor and afflicted.
13. The righteous will thank him, by his goodness convicted.
A Maschil of David; A prayer when he was in the cave.
1. I cried out to the LORD and I made supplication,
2. I poured out my heart, told him my situation.
3. when my spirit was drowning ‘neath the weight of my woes;
You knew it already before troubles arose.
You can see all the snares, that are set on my path.
You can help me avoid the enemy’s wrath.
4. I looked all around me to my left and my right;
But no one was there to help in my fight.
No one who’d help me my fate to control,
No one who cared for my body or soul.
5. I cried unto you LORD from within my confusion:
“LORD you are my refuge and you are my portion.
In this land of the living that is filled with commotion,
I raise up my voice to attract your attention.”
6. “Rescue me LORD for I have been brought low.
My enemy’s stronger and I’ve nowhere to go.
7. Rescue my soul from the prison it’s in;
From the hands of oppression and the troubles it’s seen
So I may praise your name with the righteous around me,
For towards me you’re gracious and you’ll set my soul free.”
A Psalm of David.
1. Bless’d be the LORD, my strength and my core;
Who taught my hands skills, in the art of the war.
2. He’s my goodness, my fortress, with its high reaching tower;
He’s my savior, my shield, in his trust is my power.
He who gave me dominion over all of my subjects,
Who pledge me their allegiance, and pay their respects
3. Oh LORD what are humans that you love us so deeply?
That our comings and goings absorb you completely?
4. LORD our lives are like shadows, short without substance;
They are over so quickly and they leave no remembrance.
5. Lower your heavens and come down to earth,
Touch the top of the mountains and smoke shall pour forth.
6. Scatter your lightning, like sparks from a fire;
Come to my aid, for your help I require.
Shoot out your arrows and destroy all my foes;
Put an end to my troubles, put an end to my woes.
7. Stretch out your hand from high up above,
Rescue me LORD as great waters engulf,
As my troubles engulf me, for I’ve had enough;
Of these treacherous waters, so murky and rough.
8. Save me from the hands of foreign oppressors;
Save me from the hands of evil aggressors;
Whose mouths blaspheme, and whose words are not wise;
Whose power is built on the power of lies.
9. A new song I’ll sing to you, my heavenly KING;
On a harp of ten strings, your praises I’ll sing.
10. To you LORD who gives salvation to kings;
And delivers his servants from all deadly things;
11. LORD save me from the hands of foreign oppressors,
Save me from the hands of evil aggressors.
They whose mouths blaspheme, and whose words are not wise;
They whose powers are built on the power of lies.
12. So our sons may grow strong through the days of their youth;
And our daughters be graced with beauty and truth.
13. May our storehouse be full, may we never lack food;
May our sheep and our cattle be in great multitude.
14. May our wealth be increased, may we fill our reserve;
May our people lack nothing, give them all they deserve.
15. Happy are they who live in this way;
The people of GOD, whom he cares for each day.
1. For all that he is, praise the LORD Oh my soul;
I will praise him forever and his name will extol.
2. While I am yet living, not ready for death;
While I still have my substance and still draw my breath;
I will sing you my songs, I will sing you my praise;
Before all of creation your name I will raise.
3. Do not place your faith, in man nor in king;
For in them there’s no help, no relief can they bring.
4. His breath will cut short to the earth he’ll be taken;
On that day his thoughts vanish, forever forsaken.
5. Happy are they whose help is the LORD;
Whose trust is in GOD, for they won’t be ignored.
6. The same GOD who made heaven, the earth, and the seas:
And all that is in them, with the greatest of ease:
Who stands by his cov’nant till the end of all days:
Whose truth is forever for such are his ways:
7. Who executes judgment for the weak and suppressed:
Who deals food to the hungry, and sets free the oppressed.
8. The LORD who puts light in the eyes of the blind;
Raises those who are lonely, loves the righteous and kind.
9. The stranger, the orphan, and the widow GOD saves;
But the paths of the wicked shall end in their graves.
10. This same LORD shall reign, throughout all generations!
Praise him forever all you people and Nations!
1. Praise the LORD all you beings in heaven above;
Praise him for his goodness, praise him for his love.
2. Praise him all his angels, all his heavenly host;
For you know him the best, for you know him the most.
3. Praise him you sun, you stars and you moon;
For he gave you your settings and set you attune.
4. Praise him you vastness of the heavens infinite,
Who shield the earth from all that’s above it.
5. Let them all praise his name, let it be decorated;
For the LORD spoke their name and they were created.
6. All these wonders the LORD has forever established;
Until time is no more, they will not be diminished.
For this he has ordered, this he has decreed;
For this is his work, and this is his deed.
7. Praise the LORD all you creatures who inhabit the earth;
The tiny, the large, and those of great girth.
And all who inhabit the depths of the sea
Who abide in deep darkness where no eye can see.
8. Praise his creation of fire, and hail;
Snow, mists, and winds: all in fine detail.
9. Praise him you hills, and all you great mountains;
And all manner of trees that drink from GOD’s fountains.
10: Praise him all creatures, and beasts everywhere;
All of you insects, and birds of the air;
11. Praise him you princes, and praise him you kings;
All you people, you judges, praise him in all things.
12. Young men and young women, children, and old men:
Praise him forever again and again.
13. May they all praise the LORD, may the all praise his name;
May they all praise his greatness, and his goodness proclaim;
For GOD’s name alone is for excellence known
Above all earth and heaven, is his glory, his throne.
14. He empowers his people, makes their backs and arms strong;
And so his saints praise him, in prayer and in song.
As so do his children, his own, his elect;
For them you hold dear and afford them respect.
So all of you praise him, praise GOD our LORD,
Let your thanks, and your songs, upon him be poured.
1: Praise the LORD our GOD, praise him everywhere;
Praise him in his temple, his greatness declare.
2. Praise him for his acts, which are mighty and great;
Praise him for his perfection, as his works indicate.
3. Praise him with the sound of the trumpets and harps;
Praise him with your voices, and music that’s sharp.
4. Praise him with your timbrels, praise him with your dance;
With the sounds of your strings, your praises enhance.
5. Praise him with your drums, and your cymbals that clash;
Praise him with loud cymbals, and a sound that is brash.
6. Let all things that have breath, praise him whose unflawed;
Let them joyfully shout and declare:
PRAISE THE LORD!