Psalm 67

Make Your Face Shine upon Us

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.

67:1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah ²that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. ³Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!

⁴Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah ⁵Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!

⁶The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us. ⁷God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

Psalm 68

God Shall Scatter His Enemies

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.

68:1 God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him! ²As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God! ³But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!

⁴Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the Lord; exult before him! ⁵Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. ⁶God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

⁷O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah ⁸the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. ⁹Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad; you restored your inheritance as it languished; ¹⁰your flock[1] found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy.

¹¹The Lord gives the word; the women who announce the news are a great host: ¹² “The kings of the armies—they flee, they flee!” The women at home divide the spoil— ¹³ though you men lie among the sheepfolds— the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with shimmering gold. ¹⁴When the Almighty scatters kings there, let snow fall on Zalmon.

¹⁵O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan; O many-peaked[2] mountain, mountain of Bashan! ¹⁶Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount that God desired for his abode, yes, where the Lord will dwell forever? ¹⁷The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary. ¹⁸You ascended on high, leading a host of captives in your train and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell there.

¹⁹Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah ²⁰Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death. ²¹But God will strike the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways. ²²The Lord said, “I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, ²³that you may strike your feet in their blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from the foe.”

²⁴Your procession is[3] seen, O God, the procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary— ²⁵the singers in front, the musicians last, between them virgins playing tambourines: ²⁶“Bless God in the great congregation, the Lord, O you[4] who are of Israel’s fountain!” ²⁷There is Benjamin, the least of them, in the lead, the princes of Judah in their throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

²⁸Summon your power, O God,[5] the power, O God, by which you have worked for us. ²⁹Because of your temple at Jerusalem kings shall bear gifts to you. ³⁰Rebuke the beasts that dwell among the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples. Trample underfoot those who lust after tribute; scatter the peoples who delight in war.^[6]³¹Nobles shall come from Egypt; Cush shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God.

³²O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praises to the Lord, Selah ³³to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. ³⁴Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies. ³⁵Awesome is God from his[7] sanctuary; the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God!

[1] Or your congregation [2] Or hunch-backed; also verse 16 [3] Or has been [4] The Hebrew for you is plural here [5] Hebrew Your God has summoned your power [6] The meaning of the Hebrew verse is uncertain [7] Septuagint; Hebrew your

Psalm 69

Save Me, O God

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. Of David.

69:1 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.^[8]²I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. ³I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

⁴More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore? ⁵O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

⁶Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. ⁷For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. ⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons.

⁹For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. ¹⁰When I wept and humbled[9] my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. ¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. ¹²I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness. ¹⁴Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. ¹⁵Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.

¹⁶Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me. ¹⁷Hide not your face from your servant; for I am in distress; make haste to answer me. ¹⁸Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies!

¹⁹You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. ²⁰Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. ²¹They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

²²Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.^[10]²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. ²⁴Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. ²⁵May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents. ²⁶For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. ²⁷Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you.^[11]²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

²⁹But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high!

³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. ³¹This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. ³²When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. ³³For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. ³⁵For God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; ³⁶ the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it.

[8] Or waters threaten my life [9] Hebrew lacks and humbled [10] Hebrew; a slight revocalization yields (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Jerome) a snare, and retribution and a trap [11] Hebrew may they not come into your righteousness