My Help and My Deliverer
   To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

I waited patiently for the Lord;
   he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
   out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
   making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
   a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
   and put their trust in the Lord.

Blessed is the man who makes
   the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
   to those who go astray after a lie!
You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
   your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
   none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
   yet they are more than can be told.

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
   but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
   you have not required.
Then I said, Behold, I have come;
   in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
I delight to do your will, O my God;
   your law is within my heart.

I have told the glad news of deliverance
   in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
   as you know, O Lord.
I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
   I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
   from the great congregation.

As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain
   your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
   ever preserve me!
For evils have encompassed me
   beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
   and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
   my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
   O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
   who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
   who delight in my hurt!
Let those be appalled because of their shame
   who say to me, Aha, Aha!

But may all who seek you
   rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
   say continually, Great is the Lord!
As for me, I am poor and needy,
   but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!

Psalms 40

Why Should I Fear in Times of Trouble?
   To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

Hear this, all peoples!
   Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
both low and high,
   rich and poor together!
My mouth shall speak wisdom;
   the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
I will incline my ear to a proverb;
   I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.

Why should I fear in times of trouble,
   when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,
those who trust in their wealth
   and boast of the abundance of their riches?
Truly no man can ransom another,
   or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of their life is costly
   and can never suffice,
that he should live on forever
   and never see the pit.

For he sees that even the wise die;
   the fool and the stupid alike must perish
   and leave their wealth to others.
Their graves are their homes forever,
   their dwelling places to all generations,
   though they called lands by their own names.
Man in his pomp will not remain;
   he is like the beasts that perish.

This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
   yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah
Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
   death shall be their shepherd,
and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
   Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.
But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
   for he will receive me. Selah

Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
   when the glory of his house increases.
For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
   his glory will not go down after him.
For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
   —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
   who will never again see light.
Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Psalms 49

God Himself Is Judge
   A Psalm of Asaph.

The Mighty One, God the Lord,
   speaks and summons the earth
   from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
   God shines forth.

Our God comes; he does not keep silence;
   before him is a devouring fire,
   around him a mighty tempest.
He calls to the heavens above
   and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
Gather to me my faithful ones,
   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!
The heavens declare his righteousness,
   for God himself is judge! Selah

Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
   O Israel, I will testify against you.
   I am God, your God.
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
   your burnt offerings are continually before me.
I will not accept a bull from your house
   or goats from your folds.
For every beast of the forest is mine,
   the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the hills,
   and all that moves in the field is mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
   for the world and its fullness are mine.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls
   or drink the blood of goats?
Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,
   and perform your vows to the Most High,
and call upon me in the day of trouble;
   I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.

But to the wicked God says:
   What right have you to recite my statutes
   or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline,
   and you cast my words behind you.
If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
   and you keep company with adulterers.

You give your mouth free rein for evil,
   and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother;
   you slander your own mother's son.
These things you have done, and I have been silent;
   you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

Mark this, then, you who forget God,
   lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
   to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!

Psalms 50

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever
   A Psalm of Asaph.

Truly God is good to Israel,
   to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
   my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
   when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death;
   their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
   they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
   violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
   their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
   loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
   and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
   and find no fault in them.
And they say, How can God know?
   Is there knowledge in the Most High?
Behold, these are the wicked;
   always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
   and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
   and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, I will speak thus,
   I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

But when I thought how to understand this,
   it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
   then I discerned their end.

Truly you set them in slippery places;
   you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
   swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
   O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
   when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
   I was like a beast toward you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
   you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
   and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
   And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
   but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
   you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
   I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

Psalms 73