PSALM V

PSALM V

Psalm								78	79	80
Psalm	81	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89	90
Psalm	91	92	93

至其他聖詠

01-22

23-41

42-60

61-77

78-93

94-108

109-121

122-150

PSALM ¤78 {77}

{How many times did they tempt God!— This psalm draws a lesson from the history of Israel: God’s blessings and the ingratitude of his people.}

°1 Give heed, O my people, to my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth!

°2 I will speak in parables, I will talk of old mysteries °3 which we have heard and known, which our ancestors have told us.

°4 We will not keep them hidden from our children; we will announce them to the coming generation: the glorious deeds of the Lord, his might and the wonders he has done.

°5 He issued decrees for Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children,

°6 so the next generation would learn and teach their own children.

°7 They would then put their trust in God, and not forget his deeds and his commands.

°8 And not be like their ancestors, stubborn and rebellious people, a people of inconstant heart whose spirit was fickle.

°9 Well-armed with bow, the Ephraimites took flight when the time came to do battle.

°10 It is because they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.

°11 They forgot the marvels he had done, °12 what their ancestors had seen in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.

°13 He divided the sea and led them across; he made the water stand like a wall.

°14 By day he led them with a cloud, and by night with a fiery light.

°15 In the desert he split rocks to give them abundant drink.

°16 He made streams come out of a rock and caused water to flow like a river.

°17 Yet they sinned even more against him and rebelled against the Most High in the desert. °18 They tested God, demanding the food they craved.

°19 They blasphemed against God, saying: “Can God spread a table in the desert?

°20 He made water flow out of the rock; can he also give his people bread or meat?”

°21 When the Lord heard this he was enraged; a fire raged against Jacob, his anger flared against Israel, °22 for they had no faith in God nor trust in his deliverance.

°23 Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven; °24 he rained down manna upon them and fed them with the heavenly grain.

°25 They ate and had more than their fill of the bread of angels.

°26 Then from heaven he stirred the east wind, and by his power let loose the south wind, °27 to rain down meat on them like dust.

Birds as thick as the sand on the seashore °28 fell inside their camp, lying all around their tents.

°29 They ate till they were satisfied, for he had given them what they craved.

°30 But even before they were finished, while the food was still in their mouths,

°31 God’s anger rose against them; he slew the strongest among them and laid low the flower of Israel.

°32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning and did not believe,

°33 so he swept away their days suddenly as a storm, and their years in terror. °34 When he slew them, they repented and sought him earnestly.

°35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High, their redeemer.

°36 But they flattered him with their mouths, they lied to him with their tongues, °37 while their hearts were unfaithful; they were untrue to his covenant.

°38 Even then, in his compassion, he forgave their offenses and did not destroy them.

Many a time he restrained his anger and did not fully stir up his wrath.

°39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a breeze that passes and never returns.

°40 How often did they rebel against him in the wilderness, how often did they grieve him in the desert!

°41 Again and again they tested him, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

°42 They did not remember his power in redeeming them from the oppressor; °43 neither his marvels shown in Egypt nor his wonders in the fields of Zoan, °44 when he turned the rivers to blood and the oppressors had nothing to drink.

°45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, frogs that devastated them.

°46 He gave their crops to the caterpillar and their produce to the locust.

°47 He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamores with frost.

°48 He struck their herds with plague and their flocks with thunderbolts.

°49 He unleashed his fury against them, his wrath, indignation and strife – a band of destroying angels.

°50 Giving vent to his anger, he did not spare them from death, but gave them over to the plague.

°51 He struck down Egypt’s firstborn, manhood’s firstfruits in the tents of Ham.

°52 Then he led forth his people like a flock, and guided them like sheep through the desert.

°53 He led them safely, they did not fear, but the sea engulfed their enemies.

°54 He brought them to his holy land, to the mountain his right hand had won.

°55 He drove out peoples before them and gave them the land as their inheritance; they pitched their tents in it.

°56 But they challenged and rebelled against God the Most High, and disobeyed his decrees.

°57 They were unfaithful like their ancestors, deceitful and crooked as a twisted bow.

°58 They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

°59 Filled with wrath, God rejected Israel.

°60 He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among humans.

°61 He lead his glory into captivity, his ark into the hand of the enemy.

°62 He gave his people over to the sword, so furious was he at his inheritance.

°63 Fire devoured their young men; their maidens were deprived of wedding songs.

°64 As their priests fell by the sword, no lament was heard from their widows.

°65 Then the Lord awoke, shouting, as from sleep induced by wine; °66 he struck his enemies on their back and put them to everlasting shame.

°67 He rejected the house of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, °68 but the tribe of Judah and Zion, his beloved mountain.

°69 He built his sanctuary like heaven, like the earth he founded forever.

°70 He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; °71 from tending the sheep and their young, he brought him to shepherd Jacob, the people of Israel, his inheritance.

°72 And with upright heart David pastured them; with skillful hands he led them.

PSALM ¤79 {78}

{How long will your anger last?— Let God do justice to his people. The Lord owes us nothing since we are sinners.}

°1 O God, the pagans have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

°2 They have given your servants’ corpses to the birds, and the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.

°3 They have poured out the blood of your faithful like water around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.

°4 Mocked and reviled by those around us, we are scorned by our neighbors.

°5 How long will this last, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your wrath always burn to avenge your rights?

°6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you; on the kingdoms that do not call on your name.

°7 For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his homeland.

°8 Do not remember against us the sins of our fathers.

Let your compassion hurry to us, for we have been brought very low.

°9 Help us, God, our savior, for the glory of your name; forgive us for the sake of your name.

°10 Give not the nations a chance to say, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes let them know that you avenge the blood of your servants.

°11 Listen to the groans of the prisoners; by the strength of your arm, deliver those doomed to die.

°12 Return our neighbors sevenfold, O Lord, the taunts with which they have taunted you.

°13 Then we, your people, the flock of your pasture, will thank you forever. We will recount your praise from generation to generation.

PSALM ¤80 {79}

{Let your face shine on us!— God is our shepherd: has he forgotten his people? When the Church is discredited, the salvation of Christ seems to be a failure. Lord bring us back and convert us!}

°2 Listen, O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit enthroned between the cherubim.

°3 Shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might and come to save us.

°4 Restore us, O God of hosts; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

°5 O Lord of hosts, how long will your anger burn against the prayers of your people?

°6 You have fed them with the bread of woe, and have given them tears to drink in their sorrow.

°7 You have made us the scorn of our neighbors and the laughingstock of our oppressors.

°8 Restore us, O God of hosts; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

°9 You had a vine you brought from Egypt. You drove nations out, to plant it in their land.

°10 On the ground that you cleared, it took root, and filled the land.

°11 Its shade covered the mountains, its shoots went through the mighty cedars,

°12 its branches reached out to the sea and its shoots to the River.

°13 Why, then, have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass by pluck its fruits?

°14 The beasts of the forest ravage it and all creatures of the field feed on it.

°15 Turn again, O Lord of hosts, look down from heaven and see; care for this vine, °16 and protect the stock your hand has planted.

°17 Let those who burned it down perish at your rebuke.

°18 But lay your hand on your instrument, on the son of man whom you make strong for yourself.

°19 Then we will never turn away from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.

°20 Restore us, O Lord, God of hosts; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

PSALM ¤81 {80}

{Open your mouth and I shall fill it.— “If my people would listen to me, I would subdue their enemies.” We lack dynamism to evangelize and change the world: this is because we still have idols even in our apostolate planning.}

°2 Sing joyfully to God, our strength;

acclaim aloud the God of Jacob.

°3 Start the music, strike the timbrel,

play melodies on the harp and lyre.

°4 Sound the trumpet at the new moon,

on our feastday when the moon is full.

°5 This is a decree for Israel,

an ordinance of the God of Jacob,

°6 a statute he wrote for Joseph

when he went out of Egypt.

They heard a voice they did not know:

“Open wide your mouth and I will fill it,

°7 I relieved your shoulder from burden;

I freed your hands.

°8 You called in distress, and I saved you;

unseen, I answered you in thunder;

I tested you at the waters of Meribah.

°9 Hear, my people, as I admonish you.

If only you would listen, O Israel!

°10 There shall be no strange god among you,

you shall not worship any alien god,

°11 for I the Lord am your God,

who led you forth from the land of Egypt.

°12 But my people did not listen;

Israel did not obey.

°13 So I gave them over to their stubbornness

and they followed their own counsels.

°14 If only my people would listen,

if only Israel would walk in my ways,

°15 I would quickly subdue their adversaries

and turn my hand against their enemies.

°16 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,

and their panic would last forever.

°17 I would feed you with the finest wheat

and satisfy you with honey from the rock.”

PSALM ¤82 {81}

§ God judges the judges.

°1 God presides in the divine council;

he gives judgment among the gods:

°2 “How long will you judge unjustly

and show partiality to the wicked?

°3 Give justice to the weak and the orphan;

defend the poor and the oppressed.

°4 Rescue the helpless and the needy;

deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

°5 Without knowledge and understanding,

they walk about in darkness;

all the earth’s foundations are shaken.

°6 “You are gods,” I said,

“you are all sons of the Most High.”

°7 But now you will die like the others;

you will all fall like any mortal.

°8 Rise, O God, judge the earth,

you who guide all the nations.

PSALM ¤83 {82}

§ Everyone is against us.

°2 Do not be silent, O God, hold not your peace, be not unmoved!

°3 See how your enemies are astir; those who hate you rear their heads.

°4 Craftily they plot against your people, they conspire against those you protect.

°5 They say, “Let us finish them as a nation. Let the name of Israel be forgotten!”

°6 With one heart they devise a scheme and form an alliance against you: °7 the people of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the progeny of Hagar,

°8 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre.

°9 Those from Sur are in league with them and lend support to Lot’s descendants.

°10 Deal with them as you did with Midian, with Sisera and Yabin at the river Kishon;

°11 they perished at Endor and became dung for the ground.

°12 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their chiefs like Zebah and Zalmunna, °13 who said, “Let us seize the pasture lands of God.”

°14 O my God, make them like leaves caught in a whirlwind, like chaff helpless before the wind.

°15 As fire consumes the forest, as flames set the mountains ablaze, °16 drive them out with your tempest and terrify them with your storm.

°17 Cover their faces with shame, O Lord, that they may seek your name.

°18 Let them be dismayed and abashed forever; let them perish in disgrace.

°19 Let them know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the world.

PSALM ¤84 {83}

{I want to see the living God.— The joy of the pilgrimage and of going up to the Temple.}

°2 How lovely are your rooms,

O Lord of hosts!

°3 My soul yearns, pines,

for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my flesh

cry out for the living God.

°4 Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow a nest

where she may lay her young,

at your altars, O Lord of hosts,

my King and my God!

°5 Happy are those who live in your house,

continually singing your praise!

°6 Happy the pilgrims whom you strengthen,

to make the ascent to you.

°7 As they pass through the Valley,

they make it a place of springs,

the early rain covers it with blessings.

°8 They go from strength to strength

till they appear before God in Zion.

°9 O Lord of hosts, hear my prayer;

give ear, O God of Jacob!

°10 Look upon our shield, O God;

look upon the face of your anointed!

°11 One day in your courts is better

than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be left at the threshold

in the house of my God

than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

°12 For the Lord God is a sun and a shield;

he bestows favor and glory.

The Lord withholds no good thing

from those who walk in uprightness.

°13 O Lord of hosts,

blessed are those who trust in you.

PSALM ¤85 {84}

{Justice and peace have embraced.— The salvation that God brings us is a marriage between heaven and earth, a shared project between God and humans. Christ is simultaneously the plenitude of God and the fruit of the earth.}

°2 You have favored your land, O Lord;

you have brought back the exiles of Jacob.

°3 You have forgiven the sin of your people;

you have pardoned their offenses.

°4 You have withdrawn your wrath

and turned from your burning rage.

°5 But restore us, God our savior;

put away altogether your indignation.

°6 Will your anger be ever with us,

carried over to all generations?

°7 Will you not give us life anew,

that your people may rejoice in you?

°8 Show us, O Lord, your unfailing love

and grant us your saving help.

°9 Would that I hear God’s proclamation,

that he promise peace to his people,

his saints – lest they come back to their folly.

°10 Yet his salvation is near to those who fear him,

and his Glory will dwell in our land.

°11 Love and faithfulness have met;

righteousness and peace have embraced.

°12 Faithfulness will reach up from the earth

while justice bends down from heaven.

°13 The Lord will give what is good,

and our land will yield its fruit.

°14 Justice will go before him,

and peace will follow along his path.

PSALM ¤86 {85}

{Prayer in affliction.— The servant of God, worn out by trials and anguished by death, implores the help of the One who is pure goodness.}

Listen, O Lord, and answer me, for I am afflicted and needy.

°2 Preserve my life for I am God-fearing; save your servant who trusts in you.

°3 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all day.

°4 Bring joy to the soul of your servant, for you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

°5 You are good and forgiving, O Lord, caring for those who call on you.

°6 Listen, O Lord, to my prayer, hear the voice of my pleading.

°7 I call on you in the time of my trouble for you will answer me.

°8 None is like you among the gods, your works are beyond compare.

°9 All the nations you have made will come; they will worship before you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name.

°10 For you are great, and wonderful are your deeds; you alone are God.

°11 Teach me, O Lord, how to walk in your truth, that my heart may fear your name.

°12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God; I will glorify your name forever,

°13 for great has been your love for me, you have saved me from the grave.

°14 O God, the insolent are against me; a band of cut-throats, evildoers who do not hold you in reverence.

°15 But you, O Lord God, are merciful, slow to anger, loving and faithful.

°16 Turn to me, take pity on me; give your strength to your servant, and save the child of your handmaid.

°17 Give me a sign of your grace, that my foes may see to their disgrace, that you, O Lord, are my help and comfort.

PSALM ¤87 {86}

{God loves the gates of Zion.— The psalmist recalls that God has chosen Jerusalem-Zion as the capital of his people and the mother of the nations.}

°1 He himself has built it in his holy mountain;

°2 the Lord prefers the gates of Zion

to all of Jacob’s towns.

°3 Great things have been foretold

of you, O city of God:

°4 Between friends we speak of Egypt and Babylon;

and also Philistia, Tyre, Ethiopia:

“Here so-and-so was born.”

°5 But of Zion it shall be said,

“More and more are being born in her.”

For the Most High himself has founded her.

°6 And the Lord notes in the people’s register:

“All these were also born in Zion.”

°7 And all will dance and sing

joyfully for you.

PSALM ¤88 {87}

{Prayer of the sick person close to death.— It would seem that knowing Christ, we cannot sink into despair. There are, however, days when heaven is closed for us as it was for Jesus in his agony.}

°2 O Lord, my God, I call for help by day; before you I cry out by night.

°3 May my prayer come to you; incline your ear to my cry for help.

°4 My soul is deeply troubled; my life draws near to the grave. °5 I am like those without strength.

Counted among those going down into the pit – °6 I lie forsaken among the dead, like those lying in the grave, like those you remember no more, cut off from your care.

°7 You have plunged me into the darkest depths of the pit.

°8 With your wrath heavy upon me, you have battered me with all your waves.

°9 You have taken away my closest friends; you have made me repulsive to them. I cannot escape from my confinement.

°10 My eyes have grown dim with grief; spreading out my hands to you, I call upon you every day, O Lord.

°11 Are your wonders meant for the dead? Will ghosts rise to give you thanks?

°12 Is your love and faithfulness remembered among those gone to the netherworld?

°13 Are your wonders known in the dark, your salvation in the land of oblivion?

°14 But to you, O Lord, I cry for help; every morning I pray to you.

°15 O Lord, why do you reject me, why do you hide your face?

°16 Afflicted and close to death from youth, I have suffered terrors and helplessness.

°17 Your wrath has swept over me; your assaults have destroyed me.

°18 Now they surround me like a flood; and completely engulf me.

°19 Bereft of loved ones and now alone, only darkness is my companion.

PSALM ¤89 {88}

{Your love and your fidelity.— God is faithful: he directs history and he guides our lives according to his promises which never fail.}

°2 I will sing forever, O Lord, of your love and proclaim your faithfulness from age to age.

°3 I will declare how steadfast is your love, how firm your faithfulness.

°4 You said, “I have made a covenant with David, my chosen one; I have made a pledge to my servant. °5 I establish his descendants forever; I build his throne for all generations.”

°6 The heavens proclaim your wonders, O Lord; the assembly of the holy ones recalls your faithfulness. °7 Who in the skies can compare with the Lord; who of the heaven-born is like him?

°8 A God feared in the council of the holy ones, awesome to those who approach him.

°9 O Lord God of hosts, who is like you, clothed in might and faithfulness?

°10 You reign over the surging sea; you calm its raging waves. °11 You split Rahab like a carcass; with your strong arm you routed your foes.

°12 Yours are the heavens and the earth; you founded the world and everything in it.

°13 You created the north and the south – Tabor and Hermon rejoice at your name.

°14 You have a powerful arm, mighty and exalted is your right hand!

°15 Justice and righteousness are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.

°16 Blessed is the people who know your praise. They walk in the light of your face. °17 They celebrate all day your name and your protection lifts them up.

°18 You give us glory and power; and your favor gives us victory. °19 Our king is in the hands of the Lord; the God of Israel is our shield.

°20 In the past you spoke in a vision; you said of your faithful servant:

“I have set the crown upon a mighty one; on one chosen from the people.

°21 I have found David my servant, and with my holy oil I have anointed him.

°22 My hand will be ever with him and my arm will sustain him, °23 no enemy shall outwit him nor the wicked oppress him.

°24 I will crush his foes before him and strike down his adversaries.

°25 My faithfulness and love will be with him, and by my help he will be strong.

°26 I will set his hand over the sea, his right hand over the rivers.

°27 He will call on me, ‘You are my Father, my God, my Rock, my Savior.’

°28 I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

°29 I will keep my covenant firm forever, and my love for him will endure.

°30 His dynasty will last forever, and his throne as long as the heavens.

°31 If his sons forsake my law and fail to follow my decrees, °32 if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments,

°33 I will punish their crime with the rod and their offenses with the scourge; °34 yet I will not withdraw my love from him, nor will I withdraw my faithfulness.

°35 I will be true to my promises and not break my covenant. °36 Did I not swear by my holiness? I will not lie to David.

°37 His dynasty will last forever, and his throne endure as the sun before me.

°38 It will shine forever like the moon, the unfailing watch of heavens.”

°39 But now you have rejected, disowned and raged at your anointed.

°40 You have disregarded your covenant and cast off the crown of your servant.

°41 You have destroyed his walls and reduced his strongholds to rubble. °42 The victim of despoilers, he has become the scorn of his neighbors.

°43 You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made his enemies rejoice.

°44 You have turned the edge of his sword, and have not stood by him in battle. °45 You have wrenched the scepter from his hand and flung his throne to the ground.

°46 You have shortened the time of his splendor and covered him with shame.

°47 How long, O Lord, will you hide? How long will anger burn like a fire?

°48 Consider how short my life is, how shadowy the human destiny.

°49 What mortal can live and never see death? Who will escape from the netherworld?

°50 O Lord, where is your former great love, the faithfulness you pledged to David?

°51 Remember, O Lord, how your servant is despised, how I suffer the scorn of the peoples, °52 the taunts with which your enemies have mocked every step of your anointed.

°53 Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen, Amen.

PSALM ¤90 {89}

{Our days pass like a sigh.— Our earthly life is short and frail before the face of the eternal God. He is our refuge and can give meaning to our existence. Let us ask him to fill it with wisdom, which is to love him, praise him and serve him.}

°1 Lord, you have been our refuge through all generations.

°2 Before the mountains were formed, before you made the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity – you are God.

°3 You turn humans back to dust, saying, “Return, O mortals!”

°4 A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has passed, or like a watch in the night.

°5 You sow them in their time, at dawn they peep out. °6 In the morning they blossom, but the flower fades and withers in the evening.

°7 Your fury consumes us like fire, and we are helpless before your anger.

°8 Our evils lie before you who scrutinize our hidden sins.

°9 Our days pass away in your wrath; our years are gone in no time.

°10 Seventy years to our life or eighty if we are strong, yet most of them are sorrow and trouble; speeding by, they sweep us along.

°11 Who knows the extent of your anger? Who has seen the end of your wrath?

°12 So make us know the shortness of our life, that we may gain wisdom of heart.

°13 How long will you be angry, O Lord? Have mercy on your servant.

°14 Fill us at daybreak with your goodness, that we may be glad all our days.

°15 Make joy endure as the misery did, and the years in which we were afflicted.

°16 Let your work be seen by your servants and your glorious power by their children.

°17 May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us; may he prosper the work of our hands.

PSALM ¤91 {90}

{Night prayer.— A prayer that the believer prays with assurance that God protects those who trust in him.}

°1 You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,

who rest in the shadow of the Almighty,

°2 say to the Lord, “My stronghold,

my refuge, my God in whom I trust!”

°3 He will rescue you from the fowler’s snare

and from the deadly pestilence.

°4 He will cover you with his pinions

and give you refuge under his wings.

°5 You shall not fear the terror of the night

nor the arrows that fly by day,

°6 nor the pestilence that stalks by night,

and the plague that destroys at noonday.

°7 A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but nothing shall befall you,

his faithfulness is your shield.

°8 Open your eyes:

you will see how the wicked are repaid.

°9 If you have made the Lord your refuge,

the Most High your stronghold,

°10 no harm will come upon you,

no disaster will draw near your home.

°11 For he will command his angels

to guard you in all your ways.

°12 They will lift you up with their hands

so that your foot will not hit a stone.

°13 You will tread on wildcats and snakes

and trample the lion and the dragon.

°14 “Because they cling to me, I will rescue them,”

says the Lord.

“I will protect those who know my name.

°15 When they call to me, I will answer;

in time of trouble I will be with them;

I will deliver and honor them.

°16 I will satisfy them with long life

and show them my salvation.”

PSALM ¤92 {91}

{The just will rise like a palm tree.— Enthusiasm of the one whose life is built on faithfulness. He has seen the fall of many fortunes and much glory.}

°2 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

to sing praise to your name, O Most High,

°3 to proclaim your grace in the morning,

to declare your faithfulness at night,

°4 accompanied by music from the lyre

and the melody of lute and harp.

°5 For you make me glad with your deeds, O Lord,

and I sing for joy at the work of your hands.

°6 How great are your works,

O Lord, how deep your thoughts!

°7 The senseless will not know,

nor will the stupid understand them.

°8 For though the wicked prosper

and evildoers flourish like grass,

they are doomed to vanish for good.

°9 But you, O Lord, are exalted forever.

°10 Time will come when your enemies will perish,

evildoers will be scattered.

°11 You have made me stronger than the wild ox;

you have poured fresh oil on me.

°12 I look down on my enemies;

I take for granted their doom.

°13 The virtuous will flourish like palm trees,

they will thrive like the cedars of Lebanon.

°14 Planted in the house of the Lord,

they will prosper in the courts of our God.

°15 In old age they will still bear fruit

they will stay fresh and green,

°16 to proclaim that the Lord is upright,

“He is my Rock,” they say, “he never fails.”

PSALM ¤93 {92}

{Robed in splendor, the Lord rules.— God rules as the Creator of the universe. God reigns in the person of the risen Christ who already redirects the powers of history.}

°1 The Lord reigns, robed in majesty;

the Lord is girded with strength.

The world now is firm, it cannot be moved.

°2 Your throne stands from long ago, O Lord,

from all eternity you are.

°3 The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

the floods have lifted up their roaring,

the floods have lifted up their pounding waves.

°4 Mightier than the thunder of great waters,

mightier than the breakers of the sea,

the Lord on high is mighty!

°5 Your decrees can be trusted;

holiness dwells in your house

day after day without end, O Lord.

PSALM ¤94 {93}

{Against evil rulers.— We believe in the redemption, let us also believe in the judgment. But before any judgment, God is the one who cares for all.}

°1 O Lord God, vengeance is yours; O God who avenges, show yourself!

°2 Judge of the world, repay the proud with what they deserve.

°3 How long shall the wicked, O Lord, how long shall the wicked exult?

°4 Pouring out words of arrogance, evildoers make a show of their insolence.

°5 They crush your people, O Lord, they oppress your inheritance.

°6 They murder the widow and the lonely, they massacre the helpless;

°7 “The Lord does not see,” they say, “the God of Jacob does not care.”

°8 Remember this, you stupid people, when will you understand, you fools!

°9 He who made the ear, will he not hear? He who formed the eye, will he not see?

°10 He who rebukes nations, will he not punish them?

°11 The Lord knows the thoughts of humans, that they are a puff of wind.

°12 Fortunate the one you correct, O Lord, the one you teach your law;