Psalms 7; Psalms 8; Psalms 9

1 I take refuge in you, LORD, my God. Save me from all who chase me! Rescue me!

2 Otherwise, they will rip me apart, dragging me off with no chance of rescue.

3 LORD, my God, if I have done this— if my hands have done anything wrong,

4 if I have repaid a friend with evil or oppressed a foe for no reason—

5 then let my enemy not only chase but catch me, trampling my life into the ground, laying my reputation in the dirt. Selah

6 Get up, LORD; get angry! Stand up against the fury of my foes! Wake up, my God; you command that justice be done!

7 Let the assembled peoples surround you. Rule them from on high!

8 The LORD will judge the peoples. Establish justice for me, LORD, according to my righteousness and according to my integrity.

9 Please let the evil of the wicked be over, but set the righteous firmly in place because you, the righteous God, are the one who examines hearts and minds.

10 God is my shield; he saves those whose heart is right.

11 God is a righteous judge, a God who is angry at evil every single day.

12 If someone doesn't change their ways, God will sharpen his sword, will bend his bow, will string an arrow.

13 God has deadly weapons in store for those who won't change; he gets his flaming arrows ready!

14 But look how the wicked hatch evil, conceive trouble, give birth to lies!

15 They make a pit, dig it all out, and then fall right into the hole that they've made!

16 The trouble they cause will come back on their own heads; the violence they commit will come down on their own skulls.

17 But I will thank the LORD for his righteousness; I will sing praises to the name of the LORD Most High.

1 LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth! You made your glory higher than heaven!

2 From the mouths of nursing babies you have laid a strong foundation because of your foes, in order to stop vengeful enemies.

3 When I look up at your skies, at what your fingers made— the moon and the stars that you set firmly in place—

4 what are human beings that you think about them; what are human beings that you pay attention to them?

5 You've made them only slightly less than divine, crowning them with glory and grandeur.

6 You've let them rule over your handiwork, putting everything under their feet—

7 all sheep and all cattle, the wild animals too,

8 the birds in the sky, the fish of the ocean, everything that travels the pathways of the sea.

9 LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the earth!

1 I will thank you, LORD, with all my heart; I will talk about all your wonderful acts.

2 I will celebrate and rejoice in you; I will sing praises to your name, Most High.

3 When my enemies turn and retreat, they fall down and die right in front of you

4 because you have established justice for me and my claim, because you rule from the throne, establishing justice rightly.

5 You've denounced the nations, destroyed the wicked. You've erased their names for all time.

6 Every enemy is wiped out, like something ruined forever. You've torn down their cities— even the memory of them is dead.

7 But the LORD rules forever! He assumes his throne for the sake of justice.

8 He will establish justice in the world rightly; he will judge all people fairly.

9 The LORD is a safe place for the oppressed— a safe place in difficult times.

10 Those who know your name trust you because you have not abandoned any who seek you, LORD.

11 Sing praises to the LORD, who lives in Zion! Proclaim his mighty acts among all people!

12 Because the one who avenges bloodshed remembers those who suffer; the LORD hasn't forgotten their cries for help.

13 Have mercy on me, LORD! Just look how I suffer because of those who hate me. But you are the one who brings me back from the very gates of death

14 so I can declare all your praises, so I can rejoice in your salvation in the gates of Daughter Zion.

15 The nations have fallen into the hole they themselves made! Their feet are caught in the very net they themselves hid!

16 The LORD is famous for the justice he has done; it's his own doing that the wicked are trapped. Higgayon. Selah

17 Let the wicked go straight to the grave, the same for every nation that forgets God.

18 Because the poor won't be forgotten forever, the hope of those who suffer won't be lost for all time.

19 Get up, LORD! Don't let people prevail! Let the nations be judged before you.

20 Strike them with fear, LORD. Let the nations know they are only human. Selah