Psalm 72

Give the King Your Justice

Of Solomon.

1  Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
2  May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
3  Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
4  May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!

5  May they fear yout while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations!
6  May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth!
7  In his days may the righteous flourish,
and peace abound, till the moon be no more!

8  May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the Rivert to the ends of the earth!
9  May desert tribes bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust!
10  May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands
render him tribute;
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts!
11  May all kings fall down before him,
all nations serve him!

12  For he delivers the needy when he calls,
the poor and him who has no helper.
13  He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
14  From oppression and violence he redeems their life,
and precious is their blood in his sight.

15  Long may he live;
may gold of Sheba be given to him!
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all the day!
16  May there be abundance of grain in the land;
on the tops of the mountains may it wave;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field!
17  May his name endure forever,
his fame continue as long as the sun!
May people be blessed in him,
all nations call him blessed!

18  Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
19  Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!

20  The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.

Psalm 73

God Is My Strength and Portion Forever

A Psalm of Asaph.

1  Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2  But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3  For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4  For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5  They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6  Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7  Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8  They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9  They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10  Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.t
11  And they say, "How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?"
12  Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13  All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14  For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15  If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

16  But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17  until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.

18  Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19  How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20  Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
21  When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22  I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.

23  Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24  You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25  Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26  My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strengtht of my heart and my portion forever.

27  For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28  But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.

Psalm 74

Arise, O God, Defend Your Cause

A Maskil of Asaph.

1  O God, why do you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2  Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old,
which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage!
Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
3  Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!

4  Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
they set up their own signs for signs.
5  They were like those who swing axes
in a forest of trees.t
6  And all its carved wood
they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7  They set your sanctuary on fire;
they profaned the dwelling place of your name,
bringing it down to the ground.
8  They said to themselves, "We will utterly subdue them";
they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

9  We do not see our signs;
there is no longer any prophet,
and there is none among us who knows how long.
10  How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11  Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the fold of your garmentt and destroy them!

12  Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13  You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the sea monsterst on the waters.
14  You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15  You split open springs and brooks;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16  Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
17  You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you have made summer and winter.

18  Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs,
and a foolish people reviles your name.
19  Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;
do not forget the life of your poor forever.

20  Have regard for the covenant,
for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21  Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.

22  Arise, O God, defend your cause;
remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
23  Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!