Day 171: Psalms 89 - 95

Chapter 89

I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the LORD

A Maskila of Ethan the Ezrahite.

1: I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.

2: For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”

3: You have said, “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 your throne for all generations.’” Selah

5: Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!

6: For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the heavenly beingsb is like the LORD,

7: God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?

8: O LORD God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O LORD, with your faithfulness all around you?

9: You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.

10: You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

11: The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.

12: The north and the south, you have created them; Tabor and Harmon joyously praise your name.

13: You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.

14: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

15: Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face,

16: who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted.

17: For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted.

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

19: Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said: “I have granted help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people.

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

21: so that my hand shall be established with him; my arm also shall strengthen him.

22: The enemy shall not outwit him; the wicked shall not humble him.

23: I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him.

24: My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

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

26: He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’

27: And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

28: My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.

29: I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.

30: If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules,

31: if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments,

32: then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes,

33: but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness.

34: I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.

35: Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David.

36: His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me.

37: Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah

38: But now you have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed.

39: You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust.

40: You have breached all his walls; you have laid his strongholds in ruins.

41: All who pass by plunder him; he has become the scorn of his neighbors.

42: You have exalted the right hand of his foes; you have made all his enemies rejoice.

43: You have also turned back the edge of his sword, and you have not made him stand in battle.

44: You have made his splendor to cease and cast his throne to the ground.

45: You have cut short the days of his youth; you have covered him with shame. Selah

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

47: Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man!

48: What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

49: Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?

50: Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations,

51: with which your enemies mock, O LORD, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.

52: Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and Amen.

Chapter 90

From Everlasting to Everlasting

A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.

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

2: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

3: You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!”

4: For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

5: You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:

6: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

7: For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed.

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

9: For all our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

10: The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.

11: Who considers the power of your anger, and your wrath according to the fear of you?

12: So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

13: Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!

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

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

16: Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.

17:  Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

Chapter 91

My Refuge and My Fortress

1: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

2: I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

3: For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

4: He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

5: You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

6: nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7: A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

8: You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

9: Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place - the Most High, who is my refuge –

10: no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.

11: For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

12: On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

13: You will tread on the lion and the adder;the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

14: “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15: When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.

16: With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Chapter 92

How Great Are Your Works

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.

1: It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;

2: to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,

3: to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.

4: For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

5: How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!

6: The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:

7: that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;

8: but you, O LORD, are on high forever. 

9: For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.

10: But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil.

11: My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.

12: The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13: They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.

14: They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,

15: to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Chapter 93

The LORD Reigns

1: The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

2: Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.

3: The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring.

4: Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty!

5: Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore.

Chapter 94

The LORD Will Not Forsake His People

1: O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth!

2: Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve!

3: O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?

4: They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast.

5: They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage.

6: They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless;

7: and they say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

8: Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise?

9: He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?

10: He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?

He who teaches man knowledge –

11: the LORD knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.

12: Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law,

13: to give him rest from days of trouble, until a pit is dug for the wicked.

14: For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;

15: for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.

16: Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?

17: If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.

18: When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.

19: When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.

20: Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute?

21: They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.

22: But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.

23: He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the LORD our God will wipe them out.

Chapter 95

Let Us Sing Songs of Praise

1: Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

2: Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

3: For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

4: In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.

5: The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

6: Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

7: For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,

8: do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

9: when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

10: For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.”

11: Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”