Psalms 71–75 — It Is Good to Be Near God

¹In you, LORD, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed.

²Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me.

³Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

⁵For you are my hope, Lord GOD, my confidence from my youth.

⁶I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you.

⁷I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge.

⁸My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all day long.

⁹Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.

¹⁰For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together,

¹¹saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”

¹²God, don’t be far from me. My God, hurry to help me.

¹³Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.

¹⁴But I will always hope, and will add to all of your praise.

¹⁵My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure.

¹⁶I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord GOD. I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.

¹⁷God, you have taught me from my youth. Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.

¹⁸Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don’t forsake me, until I have declared your strength to the next generation, your might to everyone who is to come.

¹⁹God, your righteousness also reaches to the heavens. You have done great things. God, who is like you?

²⁰You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.

²¹Increase my honor and comfort me again.

²²I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.

²³My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!

²⁴My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, for they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me.

¹God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son.

²He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.

³The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people. The hills bring the fruit of righteousness.

⁴He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces.

⁵They shall fear you while the sun endures; and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

⁶He will come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth.

⁷In his days, the righteous shall flourish, and abundance of peace, until the moon is no more.

⁸He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.

⁹Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust.

¹⁰The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

¹¹Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him.

¹²For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper.

¹³He will have pity on the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy.

¹⁴He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence. Their blood will be precious in his sight.

¹⁵He will live; and Sheba’s gold will be given to him. Men will pray for him continually. They will bless him all day long.

¹⁶Abundance of grain shall be throughout the land. Its fruit sways like Lebanon. Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field.

¹⁷His name endures forever. His name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed by him. All nations will call him blessed.

¹⁸Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.

¹⁹Blessed be his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and amen.

²⁰This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse.

¹Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

²But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped.

³For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴For there are no struggles in their death, but their strength is firm.

⁵They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men.

⁶Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment.

⁷Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit.

⁸They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression.

⁹They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth.

¹⁰Therefore their people return to them, and they drink up waters of abundance.

¹¹They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

¹²Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.

¹³Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,

¹⁴For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning.

¹⁵If I had said, “I will speak thus”, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

¹⁶When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me—

¹⁷until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end.

¹⁸Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.

¹⁹How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.

²⁰As a dream when one wakes up, so, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.

²¹For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart.

²²I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you.

²³Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand.

²⁴You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

²⁵Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you.

²⁶My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

²⁷For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.

²⁸But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

¹God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance: Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

³Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

⁴Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.

⁵They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.

⁶Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.

⁷They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.

⁸They said in their heart, “We will crush them completely.” They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.

⁹We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

¹¹Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them!

¹²Yet God is my King of old, working salvation throughout the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

¹⁴You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

¹⁵You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.

¹⁶The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.

¹⁷You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, LORD. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

¹⁹Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.

²¹Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.

²³Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.

¹We give thanks to you, God. We give thanks, for your Name is near. Men tell about your wondrous works.

²When I choose the appointed time, I will judge blamelessly.

³The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars. Selah.

⁴I said to the arrogant, “Don’t boast!” I said to the wicked, “Don’t lift up the horn.

⁵Don’t lift up your horn on high. Don’t speak with a stiff neck.”

⁶For neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet from the south, comes exaltation.

⁷But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.

⁸For in the LORD’s hand there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.

⁹But I will declare this forever: I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.