Psalm 30-50

Tree of Life Version

¹ A psalm, a song for the dedication of the Temple, of David.
² I will exalt You, Adonai,
for You have lifted me up,
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
³ Adonai my God, I cried to You for help,
and You healed me.
⁴ Adonai, You brought my soul up from Sheol.
You kept me alive, so I would not go down to the Pit.
⁵ Sing praise to Adonai, His faithful ones,
and praise His holy name.
⁶ For His anger lasts for only a moment,
    His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may stay for the night,
    but joy comes in the morning.
⁷ When I felt secure, I said:
“I will never be shaken.”
⁸ Adonai, in Your favor
You made my mountain stand strong.
When You hid Your face,
I was terrified.
⁹ To You, Adonai, I called,
and to my Lord I made my plea:
¹⁰ “What gain is there in my blood,
    in my going down to the Pit?
    Will the dust praise You?
    Will it declare Your truth?
¹¹ Hear, Adonai, and be gracious to me.
    Adonai, be my help.”

¹ For the music director, a psalm of David.
² In You, Adonai, have I taken refuge:
Let me never be put to shame.
In Your righteousness, deliver me.
³ Turn Your ear to me, rescue me quickly.
Be a rock of refuge for me, a stronghold for my deliverance.
⁴ Since You are my rock and my fortress,
You lead me and guide me for Your Name’s sake.
⁵ Free me from the net they hid for me,
for You are my refuge.
⁶ Into Your hand I commit my spirit.^[a]
You have redeemed me, Adonai, God of truth.
⁷ I detest those who continue to watch worthless idols,
but I trust in Adonai.
⁸ I will be glad and rejoice in Your lovingkindness,
for You saw my affliction.
You knew the troubles of my soul.
⁹ You did not hand me over to the enemy.
You set my feet in a wide-open place.
¹⁰ Be gracious to me, Adonai,
    for I am in distress.
My eyes waste away with grief,
    my soul and my body as well.
¹¹ For my life is consumed in sorrow
    and my years in sighing.
My strength fails because of my anguish
    and my bones waste away.
¹² Because of all my adversaries
I am the contempt of my neighbors
    and a dread to my acquaintances.
Seeing me on the street, they flee from me.
¹³ I am as forgotten as a dead man.
I have become like a broken vessel.
¹⁴ For I have heard the whispering of many.
There is terror on every side
    as they conspire against me
    and plot to take my life.
¹⁵ But I have trusted in You, Adonai.
I said: “You are my God.”
¹⁶ My times are in Your hands.
Deliver me from the hands of my foes and from those who pursue me.
¹⁷ Make Your face shine on Your servant.
Save me in Your lovingkindness.
¹⁸ Adonai, let me not be ashamed,
for I have called upon You.
Let the wicked be ashamed—
let them be silent in Sheol.
¹⁹ Let the lying lips be mute.
For they speak arrogantly against the righteous,
    with pride and contempt.
²⁰ How great is Your goodness,
which You have stored up for those who fear You,
which You have given to those who take refuge in You,
    before the children of men.
²¹ In the shelter of Your presence
You hide them from people’s plots.
You conceal them in a sukkah
from the strife of tongues.
²² Blessed be Adonai,
    for He has shown me His wonderful love
    in a besieged city.
²³ I said in my alarm,
“I have been cut off from Your sight!”
But You heard the sound of my pleas
    when I cried out to You.
²⁴ Love Adonai, all His kedoshim!
Adonai preserves all the faithful,
but the proud He pays back in full.
²⁵ Chazak! Let your heart take courage,^[b]
all you who wait for Adonai.

¹ Of David, a contemplative song.
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
    whose sin is pardoned.
² Blessed is the one whose guilt Adonai does not count,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.^[c]
3 When I kept silent,
my bones became brittle
through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me.
My strength was drained as in the droughts of summer.
        Selah
⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to You
and did not hide my iniquity. I said:
“I confess my transgressions to Adonai,”
and You forgave the guilt of my sin.^[d]
        Selah

¹ Sing for joy to Adonai, you righteous.
Praise is fitting for the upright.
² Praise Adonai with the harp.
Sing praises to Him with a ten string lyre.
³ Sing to Him a new song!^[e]
Play skillfully amid shouts of joy.

¹ Of David, when he feigned insanity before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.
² I will bless Adonai at all times.
His praise is continually in my mouth.
³ My soul boasts in Adonai.
The humble ones hear of it and rejoice.
⁴ Magnify Adonai with me
and let us exalt His Name together.
⁵ I sought Adonai, and He answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
⁶ They who looked to Him were radiant,
and their faces will never be ashamed.
⁷ This poor man cried, and Adonai heard,
and saved him out of all his troubles.
⁸ The angel of Adonai encamps around those who fear Him,
and delivers them.
⁹ Taste and see how good Adonai is.
Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.
¹⁰ Fear Adonai, His kedoshim,
For those who fear Him lack nothing.
¹¹ Young lions may lack, and go hungry,
but those who seek Adonai want for no good thing.

¹ A psalm of David.
Adonai, oppose those who oppose me.
Fight those who fight me.
² Take hold of shield and buckler,
and rise up to my help.
³ Draw out also a spear and battle-axe.
Stop those who pursue me.
Say to my soul: “I am your salvation.”
⁴ May those who seek my life
be ashamed and disgraced.
May they be turned back and humiliated
—those who plot evil against me.
⁵ May they be like chaff before the wind,
with the angel of Adonai driving them off.
⁶ May their way be dark and slippery,
with the angel of Adonai pursuing them.
⁷ For without cause they hid their net for me,
and without cause they dug a pit for my soul.
⁸ Let ruin come upon him by surprise.
Let the net he hid entangle himself
—into that same pit let him fall.
⁹ Then my soul will rejoice in Adonai
and delight in His salvation.
¹⁰ All my bones will say:
“Adonai, who is like You,
rescuing the poor from one too strong for him,
the poor and needy from one who robs him?”
¹¹ Violent witnesses rise up.
They question me about things I know nothing about.
¹² They repay me evil for good—
my soul is forlorn.
¹³ But as for me, when they were sick,
    my clothing was sackcloth.
I afflicted my soul with fasting,
    my prayer kept returning to my heart.
¹⁴ I went about mourning as though for my own friend or brother.
I bowed down dressed in black as though for my own mother.
¹⁵ But at my stumbling they gathered in glee.
Wretches gathered against me whom I did not know,
    tearing at me without ceasing.
¹⁶ They mocked profanely, as if at a feast,
they gnashed at me with their teeth.

¹ For the music director, of David the servant of Adonai.
² An oracle of Transgression—within my heart, to the wicked one:
“There is no fear of God before his eyes.^[i]
3 For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
too much to notice his iniquity—or hate it.
⁴ His mouth’s words are iniquity and deceit.
He has ceased to be wise and do good.
⁵ Even on his bed he plans sin.
He puts himself on a path that is no good, never refusing evil.”

¹ Of David.
Do not fret because of evildoers,
nor be envious of them who do wrong.
² For like the grass they soon wither
and fade like a green herb.
³ Trust in Adonai and do good.
Dwell in the land, feed on faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself in Adonai,
and He will give you the requests of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to Adonai.
Trust in Him, and He will do it.
⁶ He will bring out your vindication as light,
and your cause will shine as noonday.
⁷ Be still before Adonai and wait patiently for Him.
Do not fret over one prospering in his way,
over one carrying out wicked schemes.
⁸ Put away anger and turn from wrath.
Do not fret—it only leads to doing evil.
⁹ For evildoers will be cut off,
but those who wait for Adonai—
    they will inherit the land.
¹⁰ Yet a little while,
and the wicked will be no more.
Yes, you will look at his place,
    but he will not be there.
¹¹ But the meek will inherit the land,
and delight in abundant shalom.
¹² The wicked plots against the righteous
and gnashes at him with his teeth.
¹³ The Lord laughs at him—
for He sees his day is coming.
¹⁴ The wicked have unsheathed their sword and have bent their bow
    to bring down the poor and needy,
    to slay those whose conduct is upright.
¹⁵ Their sword will pierce their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
¹⁶ Better a little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked.
¹⁷ For the arms of the wicked will be broken,
while Adonai upholds the righteous.
¹⁸ Adonai knows the days of the blameless—
their inheritance endures forever.
¹⁹ They will not be ashamed in an evil time
and in days of famine they will be satisfied.
²⁰ For the wicked will perish,
and the enemies of Adonai will be like the beauty of the fields—
they will vanish—vanish like smoke.
²¹ The wicked borrows and does not repay,
but the righteous is a gracious giver.
²² For His blessed ones inherit the land.
But those He curses will be cut off.

¹ A psalm of David, for a memorial.
² Adonai, do not rebuke me in Your anger
or discipline me in Your wrath.
³ For Your arrows have sunk deep into me
and Your hand has pressed down on me.
⁴ There is no health in my flesh because of Your indignation.
There is no wholeness in my bones because of my sin.
⁵ For my iniquities are on my head—
    like a burden too heavy for me.
⁶ My wounds are foul and festering
    because of my foolishness.
⁷ I am bent over, bowed down greatly.
All day I walk about in mourning.
⁸ For my heart is filled with burning pain,
and there is no health in my body.
⁹ I am numb and utterly crushed.
I groan because of anguish in my heart.
¹⁰ My Lord, all my longing is before You,
and my sighing is not hidden from You.
¹¹ My heart pounds, my strength fails me.
The light of my eyes—also, not with me.

¹ For the music director, for Jeduthun, a psalm of David.
² I said:
“I will guard my ways, so I will not sin with my tongue.
I will muzzle my mouth while the wicked are before me.”
³ So I became utterly speechless,
kept silent even from good,
but my anguish was stirred up.
⁴ My heart was hot within me,
while I was musing, the fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue:
⁵ “Let me know, Adonai, my end
and what the number of my days is.
Let me know how short-lived I am.
⁶ Behold, You made my days mere hand-breadths,
and my lifetime as nothing before You.
Surely all humanity is but vapor. Selah
⁷ Everyone goes about as a mere phantom.
Surely they are making an uproar in vain, heaping up stuff—
yet not knowing who will gather it.^[j]
8 And now, my Lord, what do I wait for?
My hope is in You.
⁹ Deliver me from all my transgressions.
Do not make me the scorn of a fool.
¹⁰ I am speechless, not opening my mouth
—for You have done it.
¹¹ Remove Your scourge from me.
I perish by the blow of Your hand.
¹² With rebukes You chasten one for iniquity
and You consume like a moth what he finds pleasure in.
Surely all humanity is but a vapor. Selah
¹³ Hear my prayer, Adonai,
and listen to my cry—
do not keep silent at my tears.
For with You I am an outsider, a sojourner,
as all my fathers were.
¹⁴ Turn your gaze away from me, so I may smile again,
before I go, and am no more.”

¹ For the music director, a psalm of David.
² I waited patiently for Adonai.
He bent down to me and heard my cry.
³ He brought me up out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire.
Then He set my feet on a rock.
He made my steps firm.
⁴ He put a new song in my mouth—
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
    and trust in Adonai.
⁵ Blessed is the one
who put his confidence in Adonai,
who has not turned to the arrogant,
nor to those who fall into falsehood.
⁶ Many things You have done, Adonai my God
—Your plans for us are wonderful—
there is none to be compared to You!
If I were to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to count!
⁷ Sacrifice and offering You did not desire
—my ears You have opened—
burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
⁸ Then I said: “Here I am, I have come—
in the scroll of a book it is written about me.
⁹ I delight to do Your will, O my God.
Yes, Your Torah is within my being.”
¹⁰ I proclaim good news of righteousness in the great assembly.
Behold, I am not shutting my lips—
Adonai, You know!
¹¹ I did not hide Your righteousness within my heart.
Rather I declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation.
I did not conceal Your lovingkindness
and Your truth from the great assembly.

¹ For the music director: a psalm of David.
² Blessed is the one who considers the wretched—
Adonai will deliver him in the evil day.
³ Adonai will protect him and keep him alive.
He will be made blessed in the land.
You will not give him over to the desire of his foes.
⁴ Adonai will strengthen him on his sickbed.
May You restore him completely from his bed.
⁵ I said: “Adonai, have mercy on me.
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
⁶ My enemies speak evil about me:
“When will he die and his name perish?”
⁷ And if someone of them comes to see me, he speaks falsely.
He stores up evil in his heart,
then he goes out and chatters.
⁸ All who hate me whisper together about me
They imagine the worst about me:
⁹ “Something evil was poured into him—
he will not get up again from the place where he lies.”
¹⁰ Even my own close friend,
whom I trusted, who ate my bread,
has lifted up his heel against me.^[k]
11 But You, Adonai, have mercy on me,
and raise me up, so I may repay them.
¹² By this I know that You delight in me:
that my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.
¹³ You uphold me in my integrity
and set me before Your face forever.
¹⁴ Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
    Amen and amen!

¹ For the music director, a contemplative song of the sons of Korah.
² As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for You, O God.
³ My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When will I come and appear before God?
⁴ My tears have been my food day and night,
while they say to me all day: “Where is your God?”
⁵ These things I remember as I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng,
walking with them to the House of God, with a voice of joy and praise,
    a multitude keeping a festival.
⁶ Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?
Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
    for the salvation of His presence.

¹ Vindicate me, O God,
and champion
    my cause against an ungodly nation.
From a deceitful and unjust man, deliver me!
² For You are my God, my stronghold.
Why have You spurned me?
Why do I go about gloomy because of the oppression of the enemy?
³ Send forth Your light and Your truth—
let them guide me.
Let them bring me to Your holy mountain
    and to Your dwelling places.
⁴ Then I will come to the altar of God,
to the God of my exceeding joy,
and praise You upon the harp
—O God, my God.
⁵ Why are You downcast, O my soul?
Why are you murmuring within me?
Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,
    the salvation of my countenance.

¹ For the music director, a psalm of the sons of Korah, a contemplative song.
² We have heard with our ears, O God
—our fathers have told us—
of a work You did in their days, in days of old.
³ With Your hand You displaced nations, but You planted them.
You afflicted peoples, and You drove them out.
⁴ For it was not by their own sword that they took possession of the land,
nor did their own arm save them.
But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face—
    for You favored them.
⁵ You are my King, O God—
command victories for Jacob!
⁶ Through You we push back our foes.
Through Your Name we trample those rising up against us.
⁷ For I do not trust in my bow,
nor can my sword save me.
⁸ For You saved us from our oppressors
and put to shame those who hated us.
⁹ In God we make our boast all day
and Your Name we praise forever. Selah
¹⁰ Yet You have spurned and humiliated us,
and no longer go out with our armies.
¹¹ You make us retreat before the enemy.
Those who hate us have plundered us.
¹² You gave us to be devoured like sheep^[l]
and have scattered us among the nations.
¹³ You are selling Your people cheaply—
not even getting a great price for them.
¹⁴ You made us a taunt for our neighbors,
a scorn and ridicule for those around us.
¹⁵ You have made us a byword among the nations,
head-wagging among the peoples.
¹⁶ All day my disgrace is before me,
and my face is covered with shame—
¹⁷ because of the sound of taunting and reviling
from the face of a vengeful enemy.
¹⁸ All this came upon us, though we did not forget You,
nor were we false to Your covenant.
¹⁹ Our heart did not turn back,
nor did our steps stray from Your path.
²⁰ Yet You crushed us in a place of jackals,
covered us with the shadow of death.
²¹ If we had forgotten the Name of our God
or stretched our hands to a foreign god,
²² would God not have discovered it?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.
²³ But for Your sake we are slain all day.
We are counted as sheep for slaughter.^[m]
24 Awake! Why do you sleep, my Lord?
Wake up! Do not cast us off forever.
²⁵ Why do You hide Your face
and forget our misery and oppression?
²⁶ For our soul sinks down to the dust.
Our belly cleaves to the earth.
²⁷ Arise, be our help,
and redeem us
for Your mercy’s sake.

¹ For the music director, according to “Lilies.” Of the sons of Korah, a contemplative song, a love song.
² My heart is stirred with a good word.
I speak my verses to the king.
My tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.
³ You are the most handsome of the sons of men.
Grace pours from your lips.
Therefore God has blessed you forever.
⁴ Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one,
in your splendor and your majesty.
⁵ In your majesty ride victoriously,
on behalf of truth, meekness and justice.
Let your right hand display awesome things.
⁶ Your arrows are sharp.
Peoples fall beneath you—
into the heart of the king’s enemies.
⁷ Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
and a scepter of justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.
⁸ You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore, God, your God, anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.^[n]
9 All your robes have myrrh, aloes, cassia.
From ivory palaces, stringed instruments
make you glad.
¹⁰ Kings’ daughters are among your honored women.
At your right hand stands the queen
in gold of Ophir.

¹ For the music director, of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song.
² God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
³ Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth change,
though the mountains topple into the heart of the seas,
⁴ though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains quake at their swelling. Selah

¹ For the music director, a psalm for the sons of Korah.
² Clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of joy!
³ For Adonai Elyon is awesome,
a great King over all the earth.
⁴ He subdues peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
⁵ He chooses our inheritance for us,
the glory of Jacob whom He loved. Selah
⁶ God is gone up amidst shouting,
Adonai amidst the sound of the shofar.
⁷ Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
⁸ For God is the King of all the earth.
Sing praises with a skillful song.
⁹ God reigns over the nations.
God sits upon His holy throne.
¹⁰ The princes of the peoples are gathered as a people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of earth belong to God—
He is greatly exalted!

¹ A song, a psalm of the sons of Korah.
² Great is Adonai, and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God—His holy mountain.
³ A beautiful height—the joy of the whole earth—
is Mount Zion, on the northern side of the city of the great King.^[q]
4 God, in her palaces,
is known as a stronghold.
⁵ For behold, the kings assembled,
they advanced together.
⁶ They saw, then they were astounded,
they fled in terror.
⁷ Trembling seized them there,
pain like a woman in labor.
⁸ With an east wind
You broke the ships of Tarshish.
⁹ As we have heard, so have we seen,
in the city of Adonai-Tzva’ot,
in the city of our God.
God will establish her forever. Selah
¹⁰ We have meditated on Your lovingkindness, O God,
in the midst of Your Temple.
¹¹ Like Your Name, O God,
so is Your praise
    to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
¹² Mount Zion is glad,
the daughters of Judah rejoice,
    because of Your judgments.
¹³ Walk about Zion, go around her.
Count her towers.
¹⁴ Consider her ramparts,
go through her palaces,
so you may describe it to the next generation.
¹⁵ For this God is our God, forever and ever!
He will guide us to the end.

¹ For the music director: a psalm of the sons of Korah.
² Hear this, all you peoples.
Give ear, all you inhabitants of the world,
³ both low and high,
    rich and poor together.
⁴ My mouth speaks wisdom,
My heart’s meditation is understanding.
⁵ I will turn my ear to a proverb.
I will utter my riddle on the harp:
⁶ Why should I fear in evil days?
when the iniquity of my deceivers surrounds me?
⁷ Or those trusting in their wealth,
boasting about their great riches?
⁸ No man can redeem his brother,
or give to God a ransom for him.
⁹ For the redemption of a soul is costly—
so, one should stop trying forever.
¹⁰ Will he live forever—
and never see the Pit?
¹¹ Surely he must see, even wise men die.
The fool and the brutish will alike perish,
leaving their wealth to others.^[r]
12 Their inward thought is:
Their houses are eternal,
their dwellings for generation after generation.
They name their lands after themselves.
¹³ But the pompous man will not endure—
he is like the beasts that perish.
¹⁴ Such is the way of the self-confident,
and their followers who approve their sayings. Selah

¹ A psalm of Asaph.
God, Elohim Adonai has spoken and summoned the earth
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
² Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines forth.
³ Our God comes, and does not keep silent.
A fire is devouring before Him,
and it storms around Him mightily.
⁴ He calls to the heavens above
and to the earth, to judge His people:
⁵ “Gather My kedoshim to Me,
who cut a covenant with Me with a sacrifice.”
⁶ The heavens declare His righteousness,
for God Himself is Judge. Selah