Psalm 73-83

Evangelical Heritage Version

¹ Surely God is good to Israel, to the pure in heart.
² But as for me, my feet almost slipped out from under me.
I almost lost my footing.^[b]
3 I even envied the arrogant when I observed the peace of the wicked.

⁴ For there are no struggles at their death.
Their bodies are sturdy.
⁵ They do not have the trouble common to people.
They are not plagued along with the rest of mankind.
⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace.
They wear violence like clothing.
⁷ Their eyes bulge out of their fat.^[c]
The schemes of their hearts step over boundaries.
⁸ They mock. They speak maliciously.
From a high perch they threaten oppression.
⁹ They set their mouths against the heavens.
Their tongues strut around on earth.
¹⁰ Therefore God’s people turn to them,
and they drink it all in.^[d]
11 They say, “How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?”
¹² See, this is what the wicked are like—
secure forever, they increase in strength.

¹³ Have I really kept my heart pure for nothing?
Have I kept my hands clean in vain?
¹⁴ I have been plagued all day.
My punishment comes every morning.
¹⁵ If I had said, “I will speak like this,”
I would certainly have betrayed the circle of your children.
¹⁶ When I tried to understand this, it was very troubling to me,
¹⁷ until I went to the sanctuary of God.
Then I understood their end.

¹⁸ Surely you place them on slippery places.
You cause them to fall into destruction.
¹⁹ How quickly they come to ruin,
completely destroyed by terrors!
²⁰ They are like a dream when someone wakes up.
So when you arise, O Lord,
you will despise them like an illusion.
²¹ Yes, my heart was bitter,
and I was torn up inside.
²² I was unthinking and ignorant.
I was a dumb animal before you.
²³ Yet I am always with you.
You hold me by my right hand.
²⁴ With your guidance you lead me,
and afterward, you will take me to glory.
²⁵ Who else is there for me in heaven?
And besides you, I desire no one else on earth.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart fail,
but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever.
²⁷ No doubt about it!
Those who are far from you will perish.
You destroy all who commit adultery against you.
²⁸ As for me, God’s nearness is good for me.
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
so that I can tell about all your works.

¹ Why do you stay angry to the end, O God?
Why does your anger smoke against the flock in your pasture?
² Remember your community that you purchased long ago,
the tribe that you redeemed to be your possession.
Remember Mount Zion where you dwell.
³ March toward the perpetual ruins.
March against all the evil done by the enemy in the sanctuary.

⁴ Your foes roared in the middle of your appointed place.
They set up their battle standards as signs.
⁵ They looked like men swinging axes in a thicket of trees.
⁶ Yes, they even chopped up all the carved paneling
    with their hatchets and hammers.
⁷ They delivered your sanctuary to the fire.
They defiled the dwelling place for your Name
    by throwing it to the ground.
⁸ They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely!”
They burned all the appointed places of God in the land.

⁹ We do not see any signs to guide us.
There is no longer a prophet,
and none of us knows how long this will go on.
¹⁰ How long will the foe scoff, O God?
Will the enemy insult your name forever?
¹¹ Why do you hold back your hand, even your right hand?
Take it out of your pocket^[f] and finish them off!

¹² But you, O God, are my king from long ago,
the one who works salvation right here on earth.
¹³ It was you who shattered the sea by your power.
You broke the heads of the great sea monsters.
¹⁴ It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan.^[g]
You gave him as food to the people who live in the desert.
¹⁵ It was you who opened up a spring and a seasonal stream.
You dried up the rivers that flow year-round.
¹⁶ The day belongs to you, and the night is also yours.
You set the moon and sun in place.
¹⁷ It was you who laid out all the boundaries of the earth.
Summer and winter—you shaped them.

¹⁸ Remember this—the enemy scoffs, Lord,
and a foolish people has insulted your name.
¹⁹ Do not surrender the life of your turtledove to a wild animal.
Do not forget the life of your afflicted ones forever.
²⁰ Pay attention to the covenant,
because dens of violence fill the dark places in the land.
²¹ Do not let the oppressed turn back in disgrace.
Let the poor and needy praise your name.
²² Rise up, O God, and prosecute your case.
Remember how the fools mocked you all day long.
²³ Do not forget the sound of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually.

¹ We give thanks to you, O God, we give thanks.
Your wonderful deeds reveal that your name is near.

² Yes, I choose the appointed time.
I am the one who judges rightly.
³ The earth and all its inhabitants are shaking.
I am the one who holds its pillars firm. Interlude
⁴ I say to the boasters, “Do not boast,”
and to the wicked, “Do not raise a horn.^[i]
5 Do not raise your horns to the heights.
Do not speak insolently with an outstretched neck.”

⁶ Indeed, power to promote someone does not come
    from the east or from the west or from the wilderness.
⁷ No, it is God who makes the decision.
He brings down one. He raises up another.
⁸ Indeed, a cup is in the hand of the Lord.
The wine foams. It is fully mixed.
He pours this out.
Yes, they drain its dregs.
All the wicked of the earth drink.

⁹ As for me, I will proclaim this forever.
I will make music for the God of Jacob.
¹⁰ I will cut off all the horns of the wicked.
The horns of the righteous will be lifted up.

¹ God is known in Judah. In Israel his name is great.
² His shelter is in Salem. His dwelling place is in Zion.

³ There he broke the flaming arrows, Interlude
the shield and the sword, and the weapons for battle.
⁴ You shine brightly as the Mighty One from the mountains full of prey.
⁵ The strong-hearted are plundered.
They have fallen into their final sleep.
Not one of the strong men can lift his hands.
⁶ At your rebuke,^[j] O God of Jacob, both chariot and horses sleep.
⁷ You are to be feared, yes, you.
Who can stand before you at the time of your wrath?
⁸ From heaven you announced judgment.
The earth feared and was quiet
⁹ when you rose up to judge, O God, Interlude
and to save all the afflicted of the earth.

¹⁰ Even the wrath of mankind^[k] will bring you praise.
You wear what remains of your wrath like a belt.
¹¹ Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them.
Let all who are around him bring tribute to the one who is fearsome.
¹² He restrains the spirit of nobles.
He is fearsome against the kings of the earth.

¹ With my voice to God—
with my voice I cried out to God,
and he listened to me.
² In the day when I was distressed I sought the Lord.
At night my hand was stretched out,
and it never grew tired,
but my soul refused to be comforted.
³ God, I remembered and I groaned. Interlude
I pondered, and my spirit became weak.
⁴ You propped my eyelids open.
I was troubled but did not speak.
⁵ I thought about the days of long ago, the years long past.
⁶ During the night I remembered my music.
With my heart I pondered, and my spirit asked,
⁷ “Will the Lord reject forever?
Will he never again show favor?
⁸ Has his mercy vanished to the end?
Has what he said failed for all generations?
⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious? Interlude
Has he really shut up his compassion in anger?”

¹⁰ Then I said, “This is what hurts me:
the change of the right hand of the Most High.”^[m]
11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord.^[n]
Yes, I will remember your wonderful work from long ago.
¹² I will meditate on all your work,
and I will ponder all your deeds.
¹³ O God, your way is carried out in holiness.
What god is as great as God?
¹⁴ You are the God who performs a wonderful deed.
You made known your power among the peoples.
¹⁵ With your arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Interlude
¹⁶ The waters saw you, O God.
The waters saw you and swirled.
Even the depths were turbulent.
¹⁷ The clouds poured down water.
The skies echoed with thunder.
Indeed, your arrows shot back and forth.
¹⁸ The sound of your thunder was heard in the tornado.
Lightning lit up the world.
The earth trembled and quaked.
¹⁹ Your route led through the sea.
Your trail went through the mighty waters,
but your footprints were not detected.
²⁰ You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

¹ Give ear, O my people, to my instruction.
Turn your ear to the words of my mouth.
² I will open my mouth to share a lesson.
I will speak about puzzling problems from long ago,
³ things we have heard and known,
things our fathers have told us.
⁴ We will not hide them from their descendants.
We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders that he has done.
⁵ He set up testimony for Jacob.
In Israel he established the law.
He commanded our fathers to make it known to their children.
⁶ Then the next generation would know it,
even the children not yet born.
They would rise up and tell their children.
⁷ Then they would put their confidence in God,
and they would not forget the deeds of God,
but they would keep his commands.
⁸ Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn, rebellious generation,
a generation that did not keep their hearts steadfast,
whose spirits were not faithful to God.

⁹ The tribe of Ephraim, equipped and armed with bows,
    deserted on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant, and they refused to walk in his law.
¹¹ They forgot his deeds, the wonders he had shown to them.

¹² In the presence of their fathers he had performed a wonder,
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
¹³ He split the sea and let them cross through it.
He made the water stand like a wall.
¹⁴ He led them with the cloud by day
and all through the night with light from the fire.
¹⁵ He split the rocks in the wilderness,
and he let them drink water as plentiful as the deep sea.
¹⁶ He brought streams out of the rocky cliff.
He made water flow down like rivers.

¹⁷ But they continued to sin against him even more,
    by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ They tested God in their hearts by demanding food for their cravings.
¹⁹ Then they spoke against God.
They said, “Is God able to set a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ Sure, he struck the rock and water flowed out,
and stream beds overflowed,
but can he really give us bread?
Can he really supply meat for his people?”

²¹ Then the Lord heard, and he showed his anger.
Fire broke out against Jacob,
and his anger rose against Israel,
²² because they did not believe in God,
and they did not trust in his salvation.

²³ Nevertheless, he gave a command to the skies above,
and he opened the doors of the heavens.
²⁴ He rained down manna for them to eat,
and he gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Each of them ate the bread of the mighty ones.
He sent them all the food they could eat.
²⁶ He sent out the east wind from the heavens,
and he led out the south wind by his power.
²⁷ Then he rained meat down on them like dust,
and flying birds like sand on the seashore.
²⁸ He made the birds fall down inside their camp,
    all around their dwellings.
²⁹ Then they ate until they had more than enough,
for he had brought them what they craved.
³⁰ They had not yet turned away from what they craved.
Their food was still in their mouths.
³¹ Then God’s anger rose up against them.
He killed the strongest among them.
He cut down the best young men of Israel.
³² In spite of all this, they kept sinning,
and they did not believe in his wonders.
³³ So he ended their days in frustration^[o]
and their years in terror.
³⁴ Whenever he struck them down, they would seek him.
Then they turned and sought God.
³⁵ Then they remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
³⁶ But then they would deceive him with their mouths,
and with their tongues they would lie to him.
³⁷ Their hearts were not committed to him,
and they were not faithful to his covenant.
³⁸ Yet he was compassionate.
He atoned for their guilt and did not destroy them.
Many times he restrained his anger,
and he did not stir up his full wrath.
³⁹ He still remembered that they were only flesh,
like a wind that goes by and does not return.
⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness!
How often they grieved him in the wasteland!
⁴¹ They repeatedly put God to the test.
They provoked^[p] the Holy One of Israel.

⁴² They did not remember the power of his hand—
the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
⁴³ when he displayed his signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
⁴⁴ when he turned their rivers to blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent against them a swarm of flies that bit them.
Then he sent frogs that destroyed them.
⁴⁶ Then he gave their crops to the grasshopper.
He gave what they worked for to the locust.
⁴⁷ He killed their grapevines with hail,
and their sycamore fig trees with sleet.
⁴⁸ Then he turned over their cattle to hail,
and their livestock to lightning bolts.
⁴⁹ He sent against them his burning anger,
his wrath and indignation and distress
    by sending destroying angels.^[q]
50 He prepared a path for his anger.
He did not spare their lives from death,
but he delivered their lives to the plague.
⁵¹ Then he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruit of their virility in the tents of Ham.
⁵² But he led his people out like sheep.
He led them like a flock through the wilderness.
⁵³ Then he guided them safely, so they were not afraid,
but the sea covered their enemies.

⁵⁴ Then he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to this mountain which his right hand had taken.
⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them.
He marked the boundaries of their inheritance,
and he settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶ But they tested him.
They rebelled against God Most High,
and they did not keep his testimonies.
⁵⁷ Yes, they turned aside and were treacherous like their fathers.
They were as undependable as a crooked bow.
⁵⁸ Then they angered him with their high places,
and they made him jealous with their idols.

⁵⁹ God heard, and he showed his anger.
He completely rejected Israel.
⁶⁰ So he abandoned his dwelling in Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelled among people.
⁶¹ So he sent the symbol of his strength^[r] away into captivity.
He gave his splendor into the hand of the foe.
⁶² He also handed over his people to the sword,
and he showed his anger against his possession.
⁶³ Fire consumed their best young men,
so their virgins were not praised in wedding songs.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows did not weep.

⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke like someone who has been sleeping,
like a warrior overcome by wine.
⁶⁶ Then he drove back his foes.
He gave them everlasting shame.
⁶⁷ Then he rejected the tent of Joseph,
and he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
⁶⁸ But he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
⁶⁹ Then he built up his sanctuary like the heights,
like the world that he established for all time.
⁷⁰ Then he chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens.
⁷¹ He brought him from following the mother sheep
    to shepherd his people Jacob
    and his possession Israel.
⁷² So he shepherded them with a sincere heart,
and with skillful hands he led them.

¹ God, the nations have invaded your possession.
They have profaned your holy temple.
They have reduced Jerusalem to a heap of ruins.
² They have left the corpses of your servants
    as food for the birds of the sky.
They have given the flesh of your favored ones to the wild animals.
³ They have poured out their blood like water all over Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
⁴ We are subjected to contempt by our neighbors,
to mockery and ridicule by those around us.

⁵ How long, O Lord? Will you stay angry forever?
How long will your jealous anger burn like fire?
⁶ Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms that do not call on your name,
⁷ because they have devoured Jacob,
and they have destroyed his pastureland.^[s]
8 Do not charge the guilt of our fathers against us.
Hurry, let your compassion come to meet us,
for we are very weak.
⁹ God, who saves us, help us for the glory of your name.
Deliver us and make atonement for our sins for your name’s sake.
¹⁰ Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Before our very eyes, display to the nations
    vengeance for the poured-out blood of your servants.
¹¹ May the groaning of the prisoner come before you.
According to the great strength of your arm
    preserve those doomed to death.
¹² Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times as much scorn
    as the scorn that they directed at you, Lord.
¹³ Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will praise you forever.
From generation to generation we will recount your praise.

¹ O Shepherd of Israel, give ear,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are seated above the cherubim, shine forth.
² Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might.
Come with salvation for us.

³ God, restore us, and make your face shine,
    so we will be saved.

⁴ Lord God of Armies, how long will your anger smoke
    against the prayer of your people?
⁵ You make them eat bread with tears,
and you make them drink tears by the quart.^[v]
6 You create strife between us and our neighbors,
so our enemies join together in mocking us.

⁷ God of Armies, restore us, and make your face shine,
    so we will be saved.

⁸ You brought a vine out from Egypt.
You drove out the nations, and you planted it.
⁹ You cleared a place for it,
and it took root and filled the land.
¹⁰ The mountains were covered by its shade,
the cedars of God with its branches.
¹¹ It sent out its boughs to the Sea,^[w]
its shoots as far as the River.^[x]

¹² Why have you broken down its walls
so that all who pass by pick its fruit?
¹³ A wild boar from the forest tears it up,
and the wild animals^[y] feed on it.

¹⁴ God of Armies, return now!
Look down from heaven and see,
and take care of this vine,
¹⁵ the shoot that your right hand has planted,
the son that you made strong for yourself.
¹⁶ It is burned with fire like garbage.^[z]
Because of the rebuke from your face they perish.
¹⁷ Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand,
on the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself.^[aa]
18 Then we will not turn away from you.
Cause us to live, and we will call on your name.

¹⁹ Lord God of Armies, restore us, and make your face shine,
    so we will be saved.

¹ Sing a loud song to God, our strength.
Shout to the God of Jacob!
² Begin the music, and play the hand drum.
Play the sweet-sounding lyre along with the harp.
³ Sound the ram’s horn at the new moon
and at the full moon for our festival day.
⁴ Yes, this is an order for Israel,
a regulation from the God of Jacob.
⁵ God established it as a testimony for Joseph
when he went out against the land of Egypt.
There I heard a language I did not know.^[ac]

⁶ The Lord says:
I relieved Israel’s shoulders from the burden.
His hands were set free from carrying buckets.
⁷ In distress you called and I rescued you.
I answered you from the hiding place of thunder. Interlude
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
⁸ Listen, my people, and I will warn you.
If only you would listen to me, Israel!
⁹ There shall be no foreign god among you!
You shall not bow down to a strange god.
¹⁰ I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
¹¹ But my people would not listen to my voice,
and Israel was not willing to obey me.
¹² So I sent them off in the stubbornness of their hearts.
They walked according to their own plans.

¹ God is standing in the assembly of God.
In the midst of the gods^[ad] he renders judgment.

² How long will you judge unjustly Interlude
and show favoritism to the wicked?
³ Judge in favor of the weak and the fatherless.
Acquit the oppressed and the poor.
⁴ Rescue the weak and the needy.
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
⁵ They do not know. They do not understand.
They walk around in darkness.
All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
⁶ I myself said, “You are ‘gods,’
and you are all ‘sons of the Most High.’
⁷ But you will die like men.
You will fall like any other ruler.”

⁸ Rise up, O God. Judge the earth,
for you will take possession of all the nations.

¹ God, do not keep silent.
Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, God.

² Look! Your enemies are in an uproar,
and those who hate you have raised their head.
³ Against your people they devise deceptive schemes,
and they plot together against the people you treasure.
⁴ They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation,
so the name of Israel will not be remembered anymore.”
⁵ Indeed, with one mind they plot together.
They form an alliance against you—
⁶ the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
⁷ Gebal^[ae] and Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the inhabitants of Tyre.
⁸ Even Ashshur has joined with them. Interlude
They have become the arm of the sons of Lot.^[af]

⁹ Do to them as you did to Midian,
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the stream Kishon.
¹⁰ They perished at Endor.
They became like manure for the ground.
¹¹ Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
¹² who said, “Let us take possession of God’s pastures for ourselves.”
¹³ My God, make them like tumbleweed,
like chaff before the wind.
¹⁴ As fire burns the forest,
or as a flame sets the mountains on fire,
¹⁵ so pursue them with your violent wind,
and terrify them with your storm.
¹⁶ Fill their faces with shame
so that they will seek your name, O Lord.
¹⁷ May they be ashamed and terrified forever.
May they be disgraced and perish.
¹⁸ Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord,
you alone are the Most High over all the earth.