Psalms 86; Psalms 87; Psalms 88; Psalms 89

Psalms 86

1 (85-1) <A prayer for David himself.> Incline thy ear, O Lord, and hear me: for I am needy and poor.

2 (85-2) Preserve my soul, for I am holy: save thy servant, O my God, that trusteth in thee.

3 (85-3) Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I have cried to thee all the day.

4 (85-4) Give joy to the soul of thy servant, for to thee, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul.

5 (85-5) For thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild: and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee.

6 (85-6) Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer: and attend to the voice of my petition.

7 (85-7) I have called upon thee in the day of my trouble: because thou hast heard me.

8 (85-8) There is none among the gods like unto thee, O Lord: and there is none according to thy works.

9 (85-9) All the nations thou hast made shall come and adore before thee, O Lord: and they shall glorify thy name.

10 (85-10) For thou art great and dost wonderful things: thou art God alone.

11 (85-11) Conduct me, O Lord, in thy way, and I will walk in thy truth: let my heart rejoice that it may fear thy name.

12 (85-12) I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify thy name for ever:

13 (85-13) For thy mercy is great towards me: and thou hast delivered my soul out of the lower hell.

14 (85-14) O God, the wicked are risen up against me, and the assembly of the mighty have sought my soul: and they have not set thee before their eyes.

15 (85-15) And thou, O Lord, art a God of compassion, and merciful, patient, and of much mercy, and true.

16 (85-16) O look upon me, and have mercy on me: give thy command to thy servant, and save the son of thy handmaid.

17 (85-17) Shew me a token for good: that they who hate me may see, and be confounded, because thou, O Lord, hast helped me and hast comforted me.

Psalms 87

1 (86-1) <For the sons of Core, a psalm of a canticle.> The foundations thereof are the holy mountains:

2 (86-2) The Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob.

3 (86-3) Glorious things are said of thee, O city of God.

4 (86-4) I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me. Behold the foreigners, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there.

5 (86-5) Shall not Sion say: This man and that man is born in her? and the Highest himself hath founded her.

6 (86-6) The Lord shall tell in his writings of peoples and of princes, of them that have been in her.

7 (86-7) The dwelling in thee is as it were of all rejoicing.

Psalms 88

1 (87-1) <A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.> (87-2) O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.

2 (87-3) Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.

3 (87-4) For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.

4 (87-5) I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,

5 (87-6) Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

6 (87-7) They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.

7 (87-8) Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.

8 (87-9) Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:

9 (87-10) My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.

10 (87-11) Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?

11 (87-12) Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?

12 (87-13) Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?

13 (87-14) But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.

14 (87-15) Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?

15 (87-16) I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.

16 (87-17) Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.

17 (87-18) They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.

18 (87-19) Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.

Psalms 89

1 (88-1) <Of understanding, for Ethan the Ezrahite.> (88-2) The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever. I will shew forth thy truth with my mouth to generation and generation.

2 (88-3) For thou hast said: Mercy shall be built up for ever in the heavens: thy truth shall be prepared in them.

3 (88-4) I have made a covenant with my elect: I have sworn to David my servant:

4 (88-5) Thy seed will I settle for ever. And I will build up thy throne unto generation and generation.

5 (88-6) The heavens shall confess thy wonders, O Lord: and thy truth in the church of the saints.

6 (88-7) For who in the clouds can be compared to the Lord: or who among the sons of God shall be like to God?

7 (88-8) God, who is glorified in the assembly of the saints: great and terrible above all them that are about him.

8 (88-9) O Lord God of hosts, who is like to thee? thou art mighty, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee.

9 (88-10) Thou rulest the power of the sea: and appeasest the motion of the waves thereof.

10 (88-11) Thou hast humbled the proud one, as one that is slain: with the arm of thy strength thou hast scattered thy enemies.

11 (88-12) Thine are the heavens, and thine is the earth: the world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded:

12 (88-13) The north and the sea thou hast created. Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name:

13 (88-14) Thy arm is with might. Let thy hand be strengthened, and thy right hand exalted:

14 (88-15) Justice and judgment are the preparation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face:

15 (88-16) Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance:

16 (88-17) And in thy name they shall rejoice all the day, and in thy justice they shall be exalted.

17 (88-18) For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy good pleasure shall our horn be exalted.

18 (88-19) For our protection is of the Lord, and of our king the holy one of Israel.

19 (88-20) Then thou spokest in a vision to thy saints, and saidst: I have laid help upon one that is mighty, and have exalted one chosen out of my people.

20 (88-21) I have found David my servant: with my holy oil I have anointed him.

21 (88-22) For my hand shall help him: and my arm shall strengthen him.

22 (88-23) The enemy shall have no advantage over him: nor the son of iniquity have power to hurt him.

23 (88-24) And I will cut down his enemies before his face; and them that hate him I will put to flight.

24 (88-25) And my truth and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

25 (88-26) And I will set his hand in the sea; and his right hand in the rivers.

26 (88-27) He shall cry out to me: Thou art my father: my God, and the support of my salvation.

27 (88-28) And I will make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the earth.

28 (88-29) I will keep my mercy for him for ever: and my covenant faithful to him.

29 (88-30) And I will make his seed to endure for evermore: and his throne as the days of heaven.

30 (88-31) And if his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments:

31 (88-32) If they profane my justices: and keep not my commandments:

32 (88-33) I will visit their iniquities with a rod and their sins with stripes.

33 (88-34) But my mercy I will not take away from him: nor will I suffer my truth to fail.

34 (88-35) Neither will I profane my covenant: and the words that proceed from my mouth I will not make void.

35 (88-36) Once have I sworn by my holiness: I will not lie unto David:

36 (88-37) His seed shall endure for ever.

37 (88-38) And his throne as the sun before me: and as the moon perfect for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven.

38 (88-39) But thou hast rejected and despised: thou hast been angry with my anointed.

39 (88-40) Thou hast overthrown the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his sanctuary on the earth.

40 (88-41) Thou hast broken down all his hedges: thou hast made his strength fear.

41 (88-42) All that pass by the way have robbed him: he is become a reproach to his neighbours.

42 (88-43) Thou hast set up the right hand of them that oppress him: thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.

43 (88-44) Thou hast turned away the help of his sword; and hast not assisted him in battle.

44 (88-45) Thou hast made his purification to cease: and thou hast cast his throne down to the ground.

45 (88-46) Thou hast shortened the days of his time: thou hast covered him with confusion.

46 (88-47) How long, O Lord, turnest thou away unto the end? shall thy anger burn like fire?

47 (88-48) Remember what my substance is: for hast thou made all the children of men in vain?

48 (88-49) Who is the man that shall live, and not see death: that shall deliver his soul from the hand of hell?

49 (88-50) Lord, where are thy ancient mercies, according to what thou didst swear to David in thy truth?

50 (88-51) Be mindful, O Lord, of the reproach of thy servants (which I have held in my bosom) of many nations:

51 (88-52) Wherewith thy enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the change of thy anointed.

52 (88-53) Blessed be the Lord for evermore. So be it. So be it.