Psalms 31–35 — Taste and See

¹In you, LORD, I take refuge. Let me never be disappointed. Deliver me in your righteousness.

²Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be to me a strong rock, a house of defense to save me.

³For you are my rock and my fortress, therefore for your name’s sake lead me and guide me.

⁴Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, for you are my stronghold.

⁵Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, LORD, God of truth.

⁶I hate those who regard lying vanities, but I trust in the LORD.

⁷I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness, for you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.

⁸You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.

⁹Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.

¹⁰For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.

¹¹Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.

¹²I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery.

¹³For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, while they conspire together against me, they plot to take away my life.

¹⁴But I trust in you, LORD. I said, “You are my God.”

¹⁵My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.

¹⁶Make your face to shine on your servant. Save me in your loving kindness.

¹⁷Let me not be disappointed, LORD, for I have called on you. Let the wicked be disappointed. Let them be silent in Sheol.

¹⁸Let the lying lips be mute, which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.

¹⁹Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you, before the sons of men!

²⁰In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.

²¹Praise be to the LORD, for he has shown me his marvelous loving kindness in a strong city.

²²As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.

²³Oh love the LORD, all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, and fully recompenses him who behaves arrogantly.

²⁴Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the LORD.

¹Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

²Blessed is the man to whom the LORD doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

⁴For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.

⁵I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

⁶For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.

⁷You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

⁸I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.

⁹Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

¹⁰Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in the LORD.

¹¹Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!

¹Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous! Praise is fitting for the upright.

²Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre. Sing praises to him with the harp of ten strings.

³Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy!

⁴For the LORD’s word is right. All his work is done in faithfulness.

⁵He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the LORD.

⁶By the LORD’s word, the heavens were made: all their army by the breath of his mouth.

⁷He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses.

⁸Let all the earth fear the LORD. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

⁹For he spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood firm.

¹⁰The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.

¹¹The counsel of the LORD stands fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

¹²Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.

¹³The LORD looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.

¹⁴From the place of his habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,

¹⁵he who fashions all of their hearts; and he considers all of their works.

¹⁶There is no king saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

¹⁷A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither does he deliver any by his great power.

¹⁸Behold, the LORD’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his loving kindness,

¹⁹to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine.

²⁰Our soul has waited for the LORD. He is our help and our shield.

²¹For our heart rejoices in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

²²Let your loving kindness be on us, LORD, since we have hoped in you.

¹I will bless the LORD at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.

²My soul shall boast in the LORD. The humble shall hear of it and be glad.

³Oh magnify the LORD with me. Let’s exalt his name together.

⁴I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.

⁵They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame.

⁶This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

⁷The LORD’s angel encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

⁸Oh taste and see that the LORD is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

⁹Oh fear the LORD, you his saints, for there is no lack with those who fear him.

¹⁰The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.

¹¹Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

¹²Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?

¹³Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.

¹⁴Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.

¹⁵The LORD’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.

¹⁶The LORD’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.

¹⁷The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.

¹⁸The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.

¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

²⁰He protects all of his bones. Not one of them is broken.

²¹Evil shall kill the wicked. Those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.

²²The LORD redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him shall be condemned.

¹Contend, LORD, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.

²Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help.

³Brandish the spear and block those who pursue me. Tell my soul, “I am your salvation.”

⁴Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.

⁵Let them be as chaff before the wind, the LORD’s angel driving them on.

⁶Let their way be dark and slippery, the LORD’s angel pursuing them.

⁷For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me. Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul.

⁸Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Let him fall into that destruction.

⁹My soul shall be joyful in the LORD. It shall rejoice in his salvation.

¹⁰All my bones shall say, “LORD, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”

¹¹Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don’t know about.

¹²They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul.

¹³But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.

¹⁴I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.

¹⁵But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.

¹⁶Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.

¹⁷Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions.

¹⁸I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people.

¹⁹Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.

²⁰For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.

²¹Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me. They said, “Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!”

²²You have seen it, LORD. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me.

²³Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!

²⁴Vindicate me, LORD my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me.

²⁵Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!” Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”

²⁶Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me.

²⁷Let those who favor my righteous cause shout for joy and be glad. Yes, let them say continually, “May the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!”

²⁸My tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long.