Amplified Bible (AMP)

Prayer for Help against Persecutors.

To the Chief Musician.

A Psalm

of David, to bring to remembrance.

1 O God,come quicklyto save me;

O Lord, come quickly to help me!

2 Let those be ashamed and humiliated

Who seek my life;

Let them be turned back and humiliated

Who delight in my hurt.

3 Let them be turned back because of their shameanddisgrace

Who say, “Aha, aha!”

4 May all those who seek You [as life’s first priority] rejoice and be glad in You;

May those who love Your salvation say continually,

“Let God be magnified!”

5 But I am afflicted and needy;

Come quickly to me, O God!

You are my help and my rescuer;

O Lord, do not delay.

Prayer of an Old Man for Rescue.

1 In you, O Lord, I have put my trustandconfidently taken refuge;

Let me never beput to shame.

2 In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;

Incline Your ear to me and save me.

3 Be to me a rock of refugeanda sheltering stronghold to which I may continually come;

You have given the commandment to save me,

For You are my rock and my fortress.

4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked (godless),

From the grasp of the unrighteous and ruthless man.

5 For You are my hope;

O Lord God,You aremy trustandthe source of my confidence from my youth.

6 Upon You have I reliedandbeen sustained from my birth;

You are He who took me from my mother’s wombandYou have been my benefactor from that day.

My praise is continually of You.

7 I am as a wonder to many,

For You are my strong refuge.

8 My mouth is filled with Your praise

And with Your glory all day long.

9 Do not cast me offnorsend me away in the time of old age;

Do not abandon me when my strength failsandI am weak.

10 For my enemies have spoken against me;

Those who watch for my life have consulted together,

11 Saying, “God has abandoned him;

Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to rescuehim.”

12 O God, do not be far from me;

O my God, come quickly to help me!

13 Let those who attack my life be ashamed and consumed;

Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek to injure me.

14 But as for me, I will waitandhope continually,

And will praise You yet more and more.

15 My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness

And of Your [deeds of] salvation all day long,

For their number is more than I know.

16 I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord God[and in His strength];

I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.

17 O God, You have taught me from my youth,

And I still declare Your wondrous worksandmiraculous deeds.

18 And even when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not abandon me,

Until I declare Your [mighty] strength to this generation,

Your power to all who are to come.

19 Your righteousness, O God,reachesto the [height of the] heavens,

You who have done great things;

O God, who is like You, [who is Your equal]?

20 You who have shownme many troubles and distresses

Will reviveandrenew me again,

And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

21 May You increase my greatness (honor)

And turn to comfort me.

22 I will also praise You with the harp,

Your truthandfaithfulness, O my God;

To You I will sing praises with the lyre,

O Holy One of Israel.

23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You,

And my soul, which You have redeemed.

24 My tongue also will speak of Your righteousness all day long;

For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek my injury.

The Reign of the Righteous King.

A Psalm of Solomon.

1 Give the king [knowledge of] Your judgments, O God,

And [the spirit of] Your righteousness to the king’s son [to guide all his ways].

2 May he judge Your people with righteousness,

And Your afflicted with justice.

3 The mountains will bring peaceandprosperity to the people,

And the hills, in [the establishment of] righteousness.

4 May he bring justice to the poor among the people,

Save the children of the needy

And crush the oppressor,

5 Let them fear You [with awe-inspired reverence and worship You with obedience] while the sun endures,

And as long as the moon [reflects light], throughout all generations.

6 May he come down like rain on the mown grass,

Like showers that water the earth.

7 In his days may the righteous flourish,

And peace abound until the moon is no more.

8 May he also rule from sea to sea

And from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth.

9 The nomads of the desert will bow before him,

And his enemies willlick the dust.

10 The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring offerings;

The kings of Sheba and Seba will offer gifts.

11 Yes, all kings will bow down before him,

All nations will serve him.

12 For he will rescue the needy when he cries for help,

The afflictedandabused also, and him who has no helper.

13 He will have compassion on the poor and needy,

And he will save the lives of the needy.

14 He will redeem their life from oppressionandfraud and violence,

And their blood will be precious in His sight.

15 So may he live, and may the gold of Sheba be given to him;

And let them pray for him continually;

Let them blessandpraise him all day long.

16 There will be an abundance of grain in the soil on the top of themountains;

Its fruit will wave like [the cedars of] Lebanon,

And those of the city will flourish like grass of the earth.

17 May his name endure forever;

May his name continue as long as the sun;

And let men bless themselves by him;

Let all nations call him blessed.

18 Blessed be the LordGod, the God of Israel,

Who alone does wonderful things.

19 Blessed be His glorious name forever;

And may the whole earth be filled with His glory.

Amen and Amen.

20 The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.

The End of the Wicked Contrasted with That of the Righteous.

A Psalm of Asaph.

1 Truly God is good to Israel,

To those who are pure in heart.

2 But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,

My steps had almost slipped.

3 For I was envious of the arrogant

As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 For there are no pains in their death,

Their body is fatandpampered.

5 They are not in troubleas othermen,

Nor are they plagued like mankind.

6 Therefore pride is their necklace;

Violence covers them like a garment [like a long, luxurious robe].

7 Their eye bulges from fatness [they have more than the heart desires];

The imaginations of their mind run riot [with foolishness].

8 They mock and wickedly speak of oppression;

They speak loftily [with malice].

9 They set their mouth against the heavens,

And their tongue swaggers through the earth.

10 Therefore his people return to this place,

And waters of abundance [offered by the irreverent] are [blindly] drunk by them.

11 They say, “How does God know?

Is there knowledge [of us] with the Most High?”

12 Behold, these are the ungodly,

Who always prosperandare at ease [in the world]; they have increased in wealth.

13 Surely then in vain I have cleansed my heart

And washed my hands in innocence.

14 For all the day long have I been stricken,

And punished every morning.

15 If I had said, “I will say this,” [and expressed my feelings],

I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.

16 When I considered how to understand this,

It was too great an effort for meandtoo painful

17 Until I came into the sanctuary of God;

Then I understood [for I considered] their end.

18 Surely You set the wicked-mindedandimmoral on slippery places;

You cast them down to destruction.

19 How they are destroyed in a moment!

They are completely swept away by sudden terrors!

20 Like a dream [which seems real] until one awakens,

O Lord, when stirred, [You observe the wicked], You will despise their image.

21 When my heart was embittered

And I was pierced within [as with the fang of an adder],

22 Then I was senseless and ignorant;

I was like a beast before You.

23 Nevertheless I am continually with You;

You have taken hold of my right hand.

24 You will guide me with Your counsel,

And afterward receive me to honorandglory.

25 Whom have I in heaven [but You]?

And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,

But God is the rockandstrength of my heart and my portion forever.

27 For behold, those who are far from You will perish;

You have destroyed all those who are unfaithfulandhave abandoned You.

28 But as for me, it is good for me to draw near to God;

I have made the Lord Godmy refugeandplaced my trust in Him,

That I may tell of all Your works.

An Appeal against the Devastation of the Land by the Enemy.

A skillful song,

or

a didactic

or

reflective poem, of Asaph.

1 O God, why have You rejected us forever?

Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?

2 Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old,

Which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your inheritance;

Remember Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.

3 Turn your footsteps [quickly] toward the perpetual ruins;

The enemy has damaged everything within the sanctuary.

4 In the midst of Your meeting place Your enemies have roared [with their battle cry];

They have set up their own emblems for signs [of victory].

5 It seems as if one had lifted up

An axe in a forest of trees [to set a record of destruction].

6 And now all the carved work [of the meeting place]

They smash with hatchets and hammers.

7 They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground;

They have profaned the dwelling place of Yourname.

8 They said in their heart, “Let us completely subdue them.”

They have burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

9 We do not see our symbols;

There is no longer any prophet [to guide us],

Nor does any among us know for how long.

10 O God, how long will the adversary scoff?

Is the enemy to revile Your name forever?

11 Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand [from judging the enemy]?

Remove Your handfrom Your chest, destroythem!

12 Yet God is my King of old,

Working salvation in the midst of the earth.

13 You divided the [Red] Sea by Your strength;

You broke the heads of thesea monsters in the waters.

14 You crushed the heads ofLeviathan (Egypt);

You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

15 You broke open fountains and streams;

You dried up ever-flowing rivers.

16 The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;

You have establishedandprepared the [heavenly] light and the sun.

17 You have definedandestablished all the borders of the earth [the divisions of land and sea and of the nations];

You have made summer and winter.

18 Remember this, O Lord, the enemy has scoffed,

And a foolishandimpious people has spurned Your name.

19 Oh, do not hand over the soul of your turtledove to the wild beast;

Do not forget the life of Your afflicted forever.

20 Consider the covenant [You made with Abraham],

For the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.

21 Let not the oppressed return dishonored;

Let the afflicted and needy praise Your name.

22 Arise, O God, plead Your own cause;

Remember how the foolish man scoffs at You all day long.

23 Do not forget the [clamoring] voices of Your adversaries,

The uproar of those who rise against You, which ascends continually [to Your ears].

God Abases the Proud, but Exalts the Righteous.

To the Chief Musician; set to [the tune of] “Do Not Destroy.” A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.

1 We give thanksandpraise to You, O God, we give thanks,

For Your [wonderful works declare that Your]name is near;

People declare Your wonders.

2 “When I select an appointed time,

I will judge with equity,” [says the Lord].

3 “The earth and all the inhabitants of it melt [in tumultuous times].

It is I who will steady its pillars. Selah.

4 “I said to the arrogant, ‘Do not boast;’

And to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up the horn [of self-glorification].

5 ‘Do not lift up your [defiant and aggressive] horn on high,

Do not speak with a stiff neck.’”

6 For not from the east, nor from the west,

Nor from the desert comes exaltation.

7 But God is the Judge;

He puts down one and lifts up another.

8 For a cup [of His wrath] is in the hand of the Lord, and the wine foams;

It is well mixedandfully spiced, and He pours out from it;

And all the wicked of the earth must drain it and drink down to its dregs.

9 But as for me, I will declare itandrejoice forever;

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

10 All the horns of the wicked He will cut off,

But the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.

The Victorious Power of the God of Jacob.

To the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.

1 God is known in Judah;

His name is great in Israel.

2 His tabernacle is in Salem (Jerusalem);

His dwelling place is in Zion.

3 There He broke the flaming arrows,

The shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah.

4 You are gloriousandresplendent,

More majestic than the mountains of prey.

5 The stouthearted have been stripped of their spoil,

They have slept the sleep [of death];

And none of the warriors could use his hands.

6 At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob,

Both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep [of death].

7 You, even You, are to be feared [with the submissive wonder of reverence];

Who may stand in Your presence when once You are angry?

8 You caused judgment to be heard from heaven;

The earth feared and was quiet

9 When God arose to [establish] judgment,

To save all the humble of the earth. Selah.

10 For the wrath of man shall praise You;

With a remnant of wrath You will clotheandarm Yourself.

11 Make vows to the Lordyour God and fulfill them;

Let all who are around Him bring gifts to Him who is to be feared [with awe-inspired reverence].

12 He will cut off the spirit of princes;

He is awesomeandfeared by the kings of the earth.

Comfort in Trouble from Recalling God’s Mighty Deeds.

To the Chief Musician; according to Jeduthun [one of David’s three chief musicians, founder of an official musical family]. A Psalm of Asaph.

1 My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud;

My voice rises to God, and He will hear me.

2 In the day of my trouble I [desperately] sought the Lord;

In the night my hand wasstretched out [in prayer] without weariness;

My soul refused to be comforted.

3 I remember God; then I am disquietedandI groan;

I sigh [in prayer], and my spirit grows faint. Selah.

4 You have held my eyelids open;

I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

5 I have considered the ancient days,

The years [of prosperity] of long, long ago.

6 I will remember my song in the night;

I will meditate with my heart,

And my spirit searches:

7 Will the Lord reject forever?

And will He never be favorable again?

8 Has His lovingkindness ceased forever?

Have His promises ended for all time?

9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah.

10 And I said, “This is my grief,

That the right hand of the Most High has changed [and His lovingkindness is withheld].”

11 I will [solemnly] remember the deeds of the Lord;

Yes, I will [wholeheartedly] remember Your wonders of old.

12 I will meditate on all Your works

And thoughtfully consider all Your [great and wondrous] deeds.

13 Your way, O God, is holy [far from sin and guilt].

What god is great like our God?

14 You are the [awesome] God who works [powerful] wonders;

You have demonstrated Your power among the people.

15 You have with Your [great] arm redeemed Your people,

The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

16 The waters [of the Red Sea] saw You, O God;

The waters saw You, they were in anguish;

The deeps also trembled.

17 The clouds poured down water;

The skies sent out a sound [of rumbling thunder];

Your arrows (lightning) flashed here and there.

18 The voice of Your thunder was in thewhirlwind;

The lightnings illumined the world;

The earth trembled and shook.

19 Your way [of escape for Your people] was through the sea,

And Your paths through the great waters,

And Your footprints were not traceable.

20 You led Your people like a flock

By the hand of Moses and Aaron [to the promised goal].

God’s Guidance of His People in Spite of Their Unfaithfulness.

A skillful song,

or

a didactic

or

reflective poem, of Asaph.

1 Listen, O my people, to my teaching;

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth [and be willing to learn].

2 I will open my mouth in a parable [to instruct using examples];

I will utter darkandpuzzling sayings of old [that contain important truth]–

3 Which we have heard and known,

And our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children,

But [we will] tell to the generation to come the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

And [tell of] His great mightandpower and the wonderful works that He has done.

5 For He established a testimony (a specific precept) in Jacob

And appointed a law in Israel,

Which He commanded our fathers

That they should teach to their children [the great facts of God’s transactions with Israel],

6 That the generation to come might know them, that the children still to be born

May arise and recount them to their children,

7 That they should place their confidence in God

And not forget the works of God,

But keep His commandments,

8 And not be like their fathers–

A stubborn and rebellious generation,

A generation that did not prepare its heart to knowandfollow God,

And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

9 The sons of Ephraim were armed as archers and carrying bows,

Yetthey turned back in the day of battle.

10 They did not keep the covenant of God

And refused to walk according to His law;

11 And they forgot His [incredible] works

And His miraculous wonders that He had shown them.

12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers

In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided].

13 He divided the [Red] Sea and allowed them to pass through it,

And He made the waters stand up like [water behind] a dam.

14 In the daytime He led them with a cloud

And all the night with a light of fire.

15 He split rocks in the wilderness

And gavethemabundant [water to] drink like the ocean depths.

16 He brought streams also from the rock [at Rephidim and Kadesh]

And caused waters to run down like rivers.

17 Yet they still continued to sin against Him

By rebelling against the Most High in the desert.

18 And in their hearts they put God to the test

By asking for food according to their [selfish] appetite.

19 Then they spoke against God;

They said, “Can God prepare [food for] a table in the wilderness?

20 “Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out

And the streams overflowed;

Can He give bread also?

Or will He provide meat for His people?”

21 Therefore, when the Lordheard, He was full of wrath;

A fire was kindled against Jacob,

And His anger mounted up against Israel,

22 Because they did not believe in God [they did not rely on Him, they did not adhere to Him],

And they did not trust in His salvation (His power to save).

23 Yet He commanded the clouds from above

And opened the doors of heaven;

24 And He rained down manna upon them to eat

And gave them the grain of heaven.

25 Man ate the bread of angels;

God sent them provision in abundance.

26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens

And by His [unlimited] power He guided the south wind.

27 He rained meat upon them like the dust,

And winged birds (quail) like the sand of the seas.

28 And He let them fall in the midst of their camp,

Around their tents.

29 So they ate and were well filled,

He gave them what they craved.

30 Before they had satisfied their desire,

And while their food was in their mouths,

31 The wrath of God rose against them

And killed some of the strongest of them,

And subdued the choice young men of Israel.

32 In spite of all this they still sinned,

For they did not believe in His wonderfulandextraordinary works.

33 Therefore He consumed their days like a breath [in emptiness and futility]

And their years in sudden terror.

34 When He killed [some of] them, then those remaining sought Him,

And they returned [to Him] and searched diligently for God [for a time].

35 And they remembered that God was their rock,

And the Most High God their Redeemer.

36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouths

And lied to Him with their tongues.

37 For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,

Nor were they faithful to His covenant.

38 But He, the source of compassionandlovingkindness, forgave their wickedness and did not destroy them;

Many times He restrained His anger

And did not stir up all His wrath.

39 For He [graciously] remembered that they were mere [human] flesh,

A wind that goes and does not return.

40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness

And grieved Him in the desert!

41 Again and again they tempted God,

And distressed the Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not remember [the miracles worked by] His [powerful] hand,

Nor the day when He redeemed them from the enemy,

43 How He worked His miracles in Egypt

And His wonders in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided],

44 And turned their rivers into blood,

And their streams, so that they could not drink.

45 He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them,

And frogs which destroyed them.

46 He also gave their crops to the grasshopper,

And the fruit of their labor to the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with [great] hailstones

And their sycamore trees with frost.

48 He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones,

And their flocksandherds to thunderbolts.

49 He sent upon them His burning anger,

His fury and indignation and distress,

A band of angels of destruction [among them].

50 He leveled a path for His anger [to give it free run];

He did not spare their souls from death,

But turned over their lives to the plague.

51 He killed all the firstborn in Egypt,

The first and best of their strength in the tents [of the land of the sons] of Ham.

52 But God led His own people forward like sheep

And guided them in the wilderness like [a good shepherd with] a flock.

53 He led them safely, so that they did not fear;

But the sea engulfed their enemies.

54 So He brought them to His holy land,

To this mountain [Zion] which His right hand had acquired.

55 He also drove out the nations before the sons of Israel

And allottedtheir landas an inheritance, measured outandpartitioned;

And He had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents [the tents of those who had been dispossessed].

56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God

And did not keep His testimonies (laws).

57 They turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers;

They were twisted like a warped bow [that will not respond to the archer’s aim].

58 For they provoked Him to [righteous] anger with their high places [devoted to idol worship]

And moved Him to jealousy with their carved images [by denying Him the love, worship, and obedience that is rightfully and uniquely His].

59 When God heard this, He was filled with [righteous] wrath;

And utterly rejected Israel, [greatly hating her ways],

60 So that He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh,

The tent in which He had dwelled among men,

61 And gave up His strengthandpower (the ark of the covenant) into captivity,

And His glory into the hand of the enemy (the Philistines).

62 He also handed His people over to the sword,

And was infuriated with His inheritance (Israel).

63 The fire [of war] devoured His young men,

And His [bereaved] virgins had no wedding songs.

64 His priests [Hophni and Phinehas] fell by the sword,

And His widows could not weep.

65 Then the Lord awakened as from sleep,

Like a [mighty] warrior who awakens from the sleep of wine [fully conscious of his power].

66 He drove His enemies backward;

He subjected them to lasting shameanddishonor.

67 Moreover, He rejected the tent of Joseph,

And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim [in which the tabernacle stood].

68 But He chose the tribe of Judah [as Israel’s leader],

Mount Zion, which He loved [to replace Shiloh as His capital].

69 And He built His sanctuary [exalted] like the heights [of the heavens],

Like the earth which He has established forever.

70 He also chose David His servant

And took him from the sheepfolds;

71 Fromtending the ewes with nursing young He brought him

To shepherd Jacob His people,

And Israel His inheritance.

72 So David shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart;

And guided them with his skillful hands.

A Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem, and Prayer for Help.

A Psalm of Asaph.

1 O God, the nations have invaded [the land of Your people] Your inheritance;

They have defiled Your sacred temple;

They have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

2 They have given the dead bodies of Your servants as food to the birds of the heavens,

The flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth.

3 They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem,

And there was no one to bury them.

4 We have become an object of taunting to our neighbors [because of our humiliation],

A derision and mockery to those who encircle us.

5 How long, O Lord? Will You be angry forever?

Will Your jealousy [which cannot endure a divided allegiance] burn like fire?

6 Pour out Your wrath on the [Gentile] nations that do not know You,

And on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name.

7 For they have devoured Jacob

And made his pasture desolate.

8 O do not remember against us the sinsandguilt of our forefathers.

Let Your compassionandmercy come quickly to meet us,

For we have been brought very low.

9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name;

Rescue us, forgive us our sins for Your name’s sake.

10 Why should the [Gentile] nations say, “Where is their God?”

Let there be known [without delay] among the nations in our sight [and to this generation],

Your vengeance for the blood of Your servants which has been poured out.

11 Let the groaningandsighing of the prisoner come before You;

According to the greatness of Your power keep safe those who are doomed to die.

12 And return into the lap of our neighbors sevenfold

The taunts with which they have taunted You, O Lord.

13 So we Your people, the sheep of Your pasture,

Will give You thanks forever;

We will declareandpublish Your praise from generation to generation.