Psalms 86–90 — Establish the Work of Our Hands

¹Hear, LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.

²Preserve my soul, for I am godly. You, my God, save your servant who trusts in you.

³Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.

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

⁵For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.

⁶Hear, LORD, my prayer. Listen to the voice of my petitions.

⁷In the day of my trouble I will call on you, for you will answer me.

⁸There is no one like you among the gods, Lord, nor any deeds like your deeds.

⁹All nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord. They shall glorify your name.

¹⁰For you are great, and do wondrous things. You are God alone.

¹¹Teach me your way, LORD. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.

¹²I will praise you, Lord my God, with my whole heart. I will glorify your name forever more.

¹³For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.

¹⁴God, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, and they don’t hold regard for you before them.

¹⁵But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.

¹⁶Turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give your strength to your servant. Save the son of your servant.

¹⁷Show me a sign of your goodness, that those who hate me may see it, and be shamed, because you, LORD, have helped me, and comforted me.

¹His foundation is in the holy mountains.

²The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

³Glorious things are spoken about you, city of God. Selah.

⁴I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me. Behold, Philistia, Tyre, and also Ethiopia: “This one was born there.”

⁵Yes, of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one was born in her;” the Most High himself will establish her.

⁶The LORD will count, when he writes up the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah.

⁷Those who sing as well as those who dance say, “All my springs are in you.”

¹LORD, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.

²Let my prayer enter into your presence. Turn your ear to my cry.

³For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol.

⁴I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help,

⁵set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand.

⁶You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.

⁷Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.

⁸You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.

⁹My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, LORD. I have spread out my hands to you.

¹⁰Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.

¹¹Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction?

¹²Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³But to you, LORD, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you.

¹⁴LORD, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?

¹⁵I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.

¹⁶Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.

¹⁷They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me.

¹⁸You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.

¹I will sing of the loving kindness of the LORD forever. With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.

²I indeed declare, “Love stands firm forever. You established the heavens. Your faithfulness is in them.”

³“I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant,

⁴‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build up your throne to all generations.’” Selah.

⁵The heavens will praise your wonders, LORD, your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.

⁶For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the sons of the heavenly beings is like the LORD,

⁷a very awesome God in the council of the holy ones, to be feared above all those who are around him?

⁸LORD, God of Armies, who is a mighty one, like you? LORD, your faithfulness is around you.

⁹You rule the pride of the sea. When its waves rise up, you calm them.

¹⁰You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

¹¹The heavens are yours. The earth also is yours, the world and its fullness. You have founded them.

¹²You have created the north and the south. Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your name.

¹³You have a mighty arm. Your hand is strong, and your right hand is exalted.

¹⁴Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before your face.

¹⁵Blessed are the people who learn to acclaim you. They walk in the light of your presence, LORD.

¹⁶In your name they rejoice all day. In your righteousness, they are exalted.

¹⁷For you are the glory of their strength. In your favor, our horn will be exalted.

¹⁸For our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁹Then you spoke in vision to your saints, and said, “I have given strength to the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people.

²⁰I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil,

²¹with whom my hand shall be established. My arm will also strengthen him.

²²No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him.

²³I will beat down his adversaries before him, and strike those who hate him.

²⁴But my faithfulness and my loving kindness will be with him. In my name, his horn will be exalted.

²⁵I will set his hand also on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers.

²⁶He will call to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation!’

²⁷I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁸I will keep my loving kindness for him forever more. My covenant will stand firm with him.

²⁹I will also make his offspring endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

³⁰If his children forsake my law, and don’t walk in my ordinances;

³¹if they break my statutes, and don’t keep my commandments;

³²then I will punish their sin with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.

³³But I will not completely take my loving kindness from him, nor allow my faithfulness to fail.

³⁴I will not break my covenant, nor alter what my lips have uttered.

³⁵Once I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David.

³⁶His offspring will endure forever, his throne like the sun before me.

³⁷It will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.” Selah.

³⁸But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.

³⁹You have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust.

⁴⁰You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin.

⁴¹All who pass by the way rob him. He has become a reproach to his neighbors.

⁴²You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries. You have made all of his enemies rejoice.

⁴³Yes, you turn back the edge of his sword, and haven’t supported him in battle.

⁴⁴You have ended his splendor, and thrown his throne down to the ground.

⁴⁵You have shortened the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. Selah.

⁴⁶How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? Will your wrath burn like fire?

⁴⁷Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men!

⁴⁸What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.

⁴⁹Lord, where are your former loving kindnesses, which you swore to David in your faithfulness?

⁵⁰Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples,

⁵¹With which your enemies have mocked, LORD, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one.

⁵²Blessed be the LORD forever more. Amen, and Amen.

¹Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations.

²Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

³You turn man to destruction, saying, “Return, you children of men.”

⁴For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.

⁵You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass.

⁶In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.

⁷For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.

⁸You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

⁹For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.

¹⁰The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.

¹¹Who knows the power of your anger, your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?

¹²So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

¹³Relent, LORD! How long? Have compassion on your servants!

¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

¹⁵Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen evil.

¹⁶Let your work appear to your servants, your glory to their children.

¹⁷Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us. Establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands.