Saturday, January 1, 2011

Day 2 — Psalm 9-10

HEBREW Ps 9 / Ps 10
PSALM 9–10
God crushes the wicked and saves the humble *

For the choirmaster, for oboe and harp, psalm of David.

א, I thank You, Yahweh, with all my heart;
I recite Your marvels one by one,
I rejoice and exult in You,
I sing praise to Your name, Most High.

ב, My enemies are in retreat,
stumbling, perishing as You confront them:
You have upheld the justice of my cause
from the throne where You sit as righteous Judge.

ג, You have checked the nations,
You have crushed the wicked,
blotted out their name for ever and ever;
the enemy is finished, in everlasting ruin,
You have overthrown cities, their memory has perished.

ה, See, Yahweh is enthroned for ever,
He sets up His throne for judgment;
He is going to judge the world with justice,
and pronounce a true verdict on the nations.

ו, May Yahweh be a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold when times are hard.
Those who acknowledge Your name can rely on You,
You never desert those who seek You, Yahweh.

ז, To Yahweh with His home in Zion, sing praise,
tell the nations of His mighty actions;
He, the avenger of blood, remembers them,
He does not ignore the cry of the wretched.

ח, Take pity on me, Yahweh, look on my suffering,
You who lift me back from the gates of death,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may recite Your praises, one by one,
rejoicing that You have saved me.

ט, The nations have sunk into a pit of their own making,
they are caught by the feet in the snare they set themselves.
Yahweh has made Himself known, has given judgment,
He has trapped the wicked in the work of their own hands.

May the wicked return to She’ol, selah,
all the nations forgetful of God.

כ, For the needy is not always forgotten,
the hope of the poor is never brought to nothing.

Rise, Yahweh, let not man have the upper hand,
let the nations stand trial before You!
Strike terror into them, Yahweh,
let the nations know they are only men! Selah.

PSALM 10

ל, Yahweh, why do You stand aside,
why hide from us, now the times are hard?
The poor man is devoured by the pride of the wicked,
he is caught in the wiles that the other has devised.

מ, The evil man boasts of his soul's desires,
the grasping man blasphemes, the wicked spurns Yahweh.

נ, ‘His anger is up there, He will not make me pay!
There is no God!’ This is the wau his mind works.
At every moment his course is assured,
Your rulings are too lofty for his notice;
his rivals? He sneers at them all.
‘Nothing can shake me,’ he assures himself.
Himself untouched by disaster, he curses others.

ס, Fraud and oppression fill his mouth,

פ, spite and iniquity are under his tongue;
there in the reeds he lies in ambush
to kill the innocent where no one can see.

ע, Peering and prying for the out of luck,
lurking unseen like a lion in his hide,
lurking to capture the poor man,
the poor man seized, he drags him away in his net.

צ, Questing of eye, he stoops, he crouches,
and the luckless wretch falls into his power
as he thinks to himself, ‘God forgets,
He hides His face, He does not see at all.’

ק, Rise, Yahweh, God raise Your hand,
do not forget the poor!
Why does the wicked man spurn God,
assuring himself, ‘He will not make me pay.’

ר, You Yourself have seen the distress and the grief,
You watch and then take them into Your hands;
the luckless man commits himself to You,
You, the orphan's certain help.

ש, Break the power of the wicked, of the evil man,
seek out his wickedness till there is none to be found!
Yahweh is King for ever and ever,
the pagans are doomed to vanish from His country.

ת, Yahweh, You listen to the wants of the humble,
You bring strength to their hearts, You grant them a hearing,
judging in favor of the orphaned and exploited,
so that earthborn man may strike fear no longer.

Next… Psalm 11

* In Hebrew these two psalms comprise a single composition, being an acrostic, but in the version that has come down to us, some of the letters are missing.

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