Psalms 38

1 A psalm of David. For remembrance. I LORD, punish me no more in your anger; in your wrath do not chastise me!
2 Your arrows have sunk deep in me; your hand has come down upon me.
3 My flesh is afflicted because of your anger; my frame aches because of my sin.
4 My iniquities overwhelm me, a burden beyond my strength.
5 II Foul and festering are my sores because of my folly.
6 I am stooped and deeply bowed; all day I go about mourning.
7 My loins burn with fever; my flesh is afflicted.
8 I am numb and utterly crushed; I wail with anguish of heart.
9 My Lord, my deepest yearning is before you; my groaning is not hidden from you.
10 My heart shudders, my strength forsakes me; the very light of my eyes has failed.
11 Friends and companions shun my pain; my neighbors stand far off.
12 Those who seek my life lay snares for me; they seek my misfortune, they speak of ruin; they plot treachery all the day.
13 III But I am like the deaf, hearing nothing, like the dumb, saying nothing,
14 Like someone who does not hear, who has no answer ready.
15 LORD, I wait for you; O Lord, my God, answer me.
16 For I fear they will gloat, exult over me if I stumble.
17 IV I am very near to falling; my pain is with me always.
18 I acknowledge my guilt and grieve over my sin.
19 But many are my foes without cause, a multitude of enemies without reason,
20 Repaying me evil for good, harassing me for pursuing good.
21 Forsake me not, O LORD; my God, be not far from me!
22 Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my salvation!

Psalms 39

1 For the leader, for Jeduthun. A psalm of David. I I said, I will watch my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will set a curb on my mouth.
2 Dumb and silent before the wicked, I refrained from any speech. But my sorrow increased;
3 my heart smoldered within me. In my thoughts a fire blazed up, and I broke into speech:
4 II LORD, let me know my end, the number of my days, that I may learn how frail I am.
5 You have given my days a very short span; my life is as nothing before you. All mortals are but a breath. Selah
6 Mere phantoms, we go our way; mere vapor, our restless pursuits; we heap up stores without knowing for whom.
7 And now, Lord, what future do I have? You are my only hope.
8 From all my sins deliver me; let me not be the taunt of fools.
9 III I was silent and did not open my mouth because you were the one who did this.
10 Take your plague away from me; I am ravaged by the touch of your hand.
11 You rebuke our guilt and chasten us; you dissolve all we prize like a cobweb. All mortals are but a breath. Selah
12 Listen to my prayer, LORD, hear my cry; do not be deaf to my weeping! I sojourn with you like a passing stranger, a guest, like all my ancestors.
13 Turn your gaze from me, that I may find peace before I depart to be no more.

Psalms 40

1 For the leader. A psalm of David. I I waited, waited for the LORD; who bent down and heard my cry,
2 Drew me out of the pit of destruction, out of the mud of the swamp, Set my feet upon rock, steadied my steps,
3 And put a new song in my mouth, a hymn to our God. Many shall look on in awe and they shall trust in the LORD.
4 II Happy those whose trust is the LORD, who turn not to idolatry or to those who stray after falsehood.
5 How numerous, O LORD, my God, you have made your wondrous deeds! And in your plans for us there is none to equal you. Should I wish to declare or tell them, too many are they to recount.
6 III sacrifice and offering you do not want; but ears open to obedience you gave me. Holocausts and sin-offerings you do not require;
7 so I said, Here I am; your commands for me are written in the scroll.
8 To do your will is my delight; my God, your law is in my heart!
9 I announced your deed to a great assembly; I did not restrain my lips; you, LORD, are my witness.
10 Your deed I did not hide within my heart; your loyal deliverance I have proclaimed. I made no secret of your enduring kindness to a great assembly.
11 I LORD, do not withhold your compassion from me; may your enduring kindness ever preserve me.
12 For all about me are evils beyond count; my sins so overcome me I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head; my courage fails me.
13 II LORD, graciously rescue me! Come quickly to help me, LORD!
14 Put to shame and confound all who seek to take my life. Turn back in disgrace those who desire my ruin.
15 Let those who say Aha! know dismay and shame.
16 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who long for your help always say, The LORD be glorified.
17 Though I am afflicted and poor, the Lord keeps me in mind. You are my help and deliverer; my God, do not delay!

Psalms 41

1 For the leader. A psalm of David. I Happy those concerned for the lowly and poor; when misfortune strikes, the LORD delivers them.
2 The LORD keeps and preserves them, makes them happy in the land, and does not betray them to their enemies.
3 The LORD sustains them on their sickbed, allays the malady when they are ill.
4 II Once I prayed, LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, I have sinned against you.
5 My enemies say the worst of me: 'When will that one die and be forgotten?'
6 When people come to visit me, they speak without sincerity. Their hearts store up malice; they leave and spread their vicious lies.
7 My foes all whisper against me; they imagine the worst about me:
8 I have a deadly disease, they say; I will never rise from my sickbed.
9 Even the friend who had my trust, who shared my table, has scorned me.
10 But you, LORD, have mercy and raise me up that I may repay them as they deserve.
11 III By this I know you are pleased with me, that my enemy no longer jeers at me.
12 For my integrity you have supported me and let me stand in your presence forever.
13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from all eternity and forever. Amen. Amen.

Psalms 42

1 For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites. I As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, as they ask daily,Where is your God?
4 Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I went in procession with the crowd, I went with them to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.
6 II My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you From the land of the Jordan and Hermon, from the land of Mount Mizar.
7 Here deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents. All your waves and breakers sweep over me.
8 At dawn may the LORD bestow faithful love that I may sing praise through the night, praise to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, My rock, why do you forget me? Why must I go about mourning with the enemy oppressing me?
10 It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me. They say to me daily: Where is your God?
11 Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.

Psalms 43

1 III Grant me justice, God; defend me from a faithless people; from the deceitful and unjust rescue me.
2 You, God, are my strength. Why then do you spurn me? Why must I go about mourning, with the enemy oppressing me?
3 Send your light and fidelity, that they may be my guide And bring me to your holy mountain, to the place of your dwelling,
4 That I may come to the altar of God, to God, my joy, my delight. Then I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.
5 Why are you downcast, my soul? Why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.

Psalms 44

1 For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites. I O God, we have heard with our own ears; our ancestors have told us The deeds you did in their days, with your own hand in days of old:
2 You rooted out nations to plant them, crushed peoples to make room for them.
3 Not with their own swords did they conquer the land, nor did their own arms bring victory; It was your right hand, your own arm, the light of your face for you favored them.
4 You are my king and my God, who bestows victories on Jacob.
5 Through you we batter our foes; through your name, trample our adversaries.
6 Not in my bow do I trust, nor does my sword bring me victory.
7 You have brought us victory over our enemies, shamed those who hate us.
8 In God we have boasted all the day long; your name we will praise forever. Selah
9 II But now you have rejected and disgraced us; you do not march out with our armies.
10 You make us retreat before the foe; those who hate us plunder us at will.
11 You hand us over like sheep to be slaughtered, scatter us among the nations.
12 You sell your people for nothing; you make no profit from their sale.
13 You make us the reproach of our neighbors, the mockery and scorn of those around us.
14 You make us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us.
15 All day long my disgrace is before me; shame has covered my face
16 At the sound of those who taunt and revile, at the sight of the spiteful enemy.
17 III All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, nor been disloyal to your covenant.
18 Our hearts have not turned back, nor have our steps strayed from your path.
19 Yet you have left us crushed, desolate in a place of jackals; you have covered us with darkness.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God, stretched out our hands to another god,
21 Would not God have discovered this, God who knows the secrets of the heart?
22 For you we are slain all the day long, considered only as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 IV Awake! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Rise up! Do not reject us forever!
24 Why do you hide your face; why forget our pain and misery?
25 We are bowed down to the ground; our bodies are pressed to the earth.
26 Rise up, help us! Redeem us as your love demands.