Why Do You Hide Yourself?

¹Why, O Lord, do you stand kfar away?

Why ldo you hide yourself in mtimes of trouble?

²In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;

let them nbe caught in the schemes that they have devised.

³For the wicked oboasts of the desires of his soul,

and the one greedy for gain pcurses1 and qrenounces the Lord.

⁴In the pride of his face2 the wicked does not qseek him;3

all his thoughts are, r“There is no God.”

⁵His ways prosper at all times;

your judgments are on high, sout of his sight;

as for all his foes, he tpuffs at them.

⁶He usays in his heart, “I shall not be moved;

throughout all generations I vshall not meet adversity.”

⁷wHis mouth is filled with cursing and xdeceit and yoppression;

zunder his tongue are amischief and biniquity.

⁸He sits in ambush in the villages;

in chiding places he murders the innocent.

His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;

⁹he lurks in ambush like da lion in his ethicket;

he flurks that he may seize the poor;

he seizes the poor when he draws him into his gnet.

¹⁰The helpless are crushed, sink down,

and fall by his might.

¹¹He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,

he has hhidden his face, he iwill never see it.”

¹²jArise, O Lord; O God, klift up your hand;

lforget not the afflicted.

¹³Why does the wicked mrenounce God

and say in his heart, “You will not ncall to account”?

¹⁴But you do see, for you onote mischief and vexation,

that you may take it into your hands;

to you the helpless pcommits himself;

you have been qthe helper of the fatherless.

¹⁵rBreak the arm of the wicked and evildoer;

scall his wickedness to account till you find none.

¹⁶tThe Lord is king forever and ever;

the unations perish from his land.

¹⁷O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;

you will vstrengthen their heart; you will incline your ear

¹⁸to wdo justice to the fatherless and xthe oppressed,

so that yman who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

The Lord Is in His Holy Temple

To the choirmaster. Of David.

¹In the Lord I take refuge;

how can you say to my soul,

z“Flee like a bird to your mountain,

²for behold, the wicked abend the bow;

bthey have fitted their arrow to the string

to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;

³if cthe foundations are destroyed,

what can the righteous do?”1

⁴dThe Lord is in his holy temple;

the Lord's ethrone is in heaven;

his eyes see, his eyelids ftest the children of man.

⁵The Lord gtests the righteous,

but hhis soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

⁶Let him rain coals on the wicked;

ifire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be jthe portion of their cup.

⁷For the Lord is righteous;

he kloves righteous deeds;

lthe upright shall behold his face.

The Faithful Have Vanished

To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith.1 A Psalm of David.

¹Save, O Lord, for mthe godly one is gone;

for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.

²Everyone nutters lies to his neighbor;

with oflattering lips and pa double heart they speak.

³May the Lord cut off all oflattering lips,

the tongue that makes qgreat boasts,

⁴those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,

our lips are with us; who is master over us?”

⁵“Because rthe poor are plundered, because the needy groan,

sI will now arise,” says the Lord;

“I will place him in the tsafety for which he longs.”

⁶uThe words of the Lord are pure words,

like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,

purified seven times.

⁷You, O Lord, will keep them;

you will guard us2 from this generation forever.

⁸On every side the wicked prowl,

as vileness is exalted among the children of man.

How Long, O Lord?

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

¹vHow long, O Lord? Will you wforget me forever?

How long will you xhide your face from me?

²How long must I take ycounsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

³zConsider and answer me, O Lord my God;

alight up my eyes, lest bI sleep the sleep of death,

⁴clest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

lest my foes rejoice because I am dshaken.

⁵But I have etrusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall frejoice in your salvation.

⁶I will sing to the Lord,

because he has dealt bountifully with me.

The Fool Says, There Is No God

To the choirmaster. Of David.

¹gThe hfool says in his heart, i“There is no God.”

They are jcorrupt, they do abominable deeds;

kthere is none who does good.

²The Lord llooks down from heaven on the children of man,

to see if there are any who understand,1

who mseek after God.

³They have all turned aside; together they have become ncorrupt;

there is none who does good,

not even one.

⁴Have they no oknowledge, all the evildoers

who peat up my people as they eat bread

and qdo not call upon the Lord?

⁵There they are in great terror,

for God is with rthe generation of the righteous.

⁶You would shame the plans of the poor,

but2 the Lord is his srefuge.

⁷Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

When the Lord trestores the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.