Psalms 86-89

Psalm 86

¹A Prayer of David. Incline thine ear, Jehovah, answer me; for I am afflicted and needy.

²Keep my soul, for I am godly; O thou my God, save thy servant who confideth in thee.

³Be gracious unto me, O Lord; for unto thee do I call all the day.

⁴Rejoice the soul of thy servant; for unto thee, Lord, do I lift up my soul.

⁵For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive, and art of great loving-kindness unto all that call upon thee.

⁶Give ear, O Jehovah, unto my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplications.

⁷In the day of my distress I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me.

⁸Among the gods there is none like unto thee, Lord, and there is nothing like unto thy works.

⁹All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name.

¹⁰For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God, thou alone.

¹¹Teach me thy way, Jehovah; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

¹²I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with my whole heart; and I will glorify thy name for evermore.

¹³For great is thy loving-kindness toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.

¹⁴O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assembly of the violent seek after my soul, and they have not set thee before them.

¹⁵But thou, Lord, art a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth.

¹⁶Turn toward me, and be gracious unto me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid.

¹⁷Shew me a token for good, that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed; for thou, Jehovah, hast helped me and comforted me.

Psalm 87

¹Of the sons of Korah. A Psalm. A Song. His foundation is in the mountains of holiness.

²Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob.

³Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.

⁴I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon among them that know me; behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia: this man was born there.

⁵And of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one was born in her; and the Most High himself shall establish her.

⁶Jehovah will count, when he inscribeth the peoples, This man was born there. Selah.

⁷As well the singers as the dancers shall say, All my springs are in thee.

Psalm 88

¹A Song, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. To the chief Musician. Upon Mahalath Leannoth. An instruction. Of Heman the Ezrahite. Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have cried by day and in the night before thee.

²Let my prayer come before thee; incline thine ear unto my cry.

³For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to Sheol.

⁴I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength:

⁵Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand.

⁶Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.

⁷Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

⁸Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

⁹Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

¹⁰Wilt thou do wonders to the dead? shall the shades arise and praise thee? Selah.

¹¹Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in Destruction?

¹²Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³But as for me, Jehovah, I cry unto thee, and in the morning my prayer cometh before thee.

¹⁴Why, O Jehovah, castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

¹⁵I am afflicted and expiring from my youth up; I suffer thy terrors, and I am distracted.

¹⁶Thy fierce anger hath gone over me; thy terrors have brought me to nought:

¹⁷They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together.

¹⁸Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.

Psalm 89

¹An instruction. Of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the loving-kindness of Jehovah for ever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness from generation to generation.

²For I said, Loving-kindness shall be built up for ever; in the very heavens wilt thou establish thy faithfulness.

³I have made a covenant with mine elect, I have sworn unto David my servant:

⁴Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne from generation to generation. Selah.

⁵And the heavens shall celebrate thy wonders, O Jehovah, and thy faithfulness in the congregation of the saints.

⁶For who in the heaven can be compared to Jehovah? who among the sons of the mighty shall be likened to Jehovah?

⁷God is greatly to be feared in the council of the saints, and terrible for all that are round about him.

⁸Jehovah, God of hosts, who is like unto thee, the strong Jah? And thy faithfulness is round about thee.

⁹*Thou* rulest the pride of the sea: when its waves arise, *thou* stillest them.

¹⁰Thou hast crushed Rahab as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy strength.

¹¹Thine are the heavens, the earth also is thine; the world and its fulness, *thou* hast founded them.

¹²The north and the south, *thou* hast created them: Tabor and Hermon triumph in thy name.

¹³Thine is the arm of might: strong is thy hand, high is thy right hand.

¹⁴Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of thy throne; loving-kindness and truth go before thy face.

¹⁵Blessed is the people that know the shout of joy: they walk, O Jehovah, in the light of thy countenance.

¹⁶In thy name are they joyful all the day, and in thy righteousness are they exalted.

¹⁷For thou art the glory of their strength; and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.

¹⁸For Jehovah is our shield, and the Holy One of Israel, our king.

¹⁹Then thou spakest in vision of thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

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

²¹With whom my hand shall be established; and mine arm shall strengthen him.

²²No enemy shall exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him;

²³But I will beat down his adversaries before his face, and will smite them that hate him.

²⁴And my faithfulness and my loving-kindness shall be with him, and by my name shall his horn be exalted.

²⁵And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.

²⁶*He* shall call unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation;

²⁷And as to me, I will make him firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁸My loving-kindness will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him;

²⁹And I will establish his seed for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.

³⁰If his sons forsake my law, and walk not in mine ordinances;

³¹If they profane my statutes, and keep not my commandments:

³²Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.

³³Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor belie my faithfulness;

³⁴My covenant will I not profane, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

³⁵Once have I sworn by my holiness; I will not lie unto David:

³⁶His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me;

³⁷It shall be established for ever as the moon, and the witness in the sky is firm. Selah.

³⁸But thou hast rejected and cast off; thou hast been very wroth with thine anointed:

³⁹Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his crown to the ground:

⁴⁰Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin.

⁴¹All that pass by the way plunder him; he is become a reproach to his neighbours.

⁴²Thou hast exalted the right hand of his oppressors; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice:

⁴³Yea, thou hast turned back the edge of his sword, and hast not made him stand in the battle.

⁴⁴Thou hast made his brightness to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground;

⁴⁵The days of his youth hast thou shortened; thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.

⁴⁶How long, Jehovah, wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy fury burn like fire?

⁴⁷Remember, as regards me, what life is. Wherefore hast thou created all the children of men to be vanity?

⁴⁸What man liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.

⁴⁹Where, Lord, are thy former loving-kindnesses, which thou swarest unto David in thy faithfulness?

⁵⁰Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants -- that I bear in my bosom that of all the mighty peoples --

⁵¹Wherewith thine enemies, O Jehovah, have reproached, wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

⁵²Blessed be Jehovah for evermore! Amen, and Amen.