THE PSALMS OF DAVID

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM I

The happiness of the just and the evil state of the wicked.

Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence. But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth. Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just.

For the Lord knoweth the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish.

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM LIX

After many afflictions, the church of Christ shall prevail.

When he set fire to Mesopotamia of Syria and Sobal and Joab returned and slew of Edom, in the vale of the saltpits, twelve thousand men. O God, thou hast cast us off, and hast destroyed us; thou hast been angry, and hast had mercy on us. Thou hast moved the earth, and hast troubled it: heal thou the breaches thereof, for it has been moved. Thou hast shewn thy people hard things; thou hast made us drink wine of sorrow.

Thou hast given a warning to them that fear thee: that they may flee from before the bow: That thy beloved may be delivered. Save me with thy right hand, and hear me. God hath spoken in his holy place: I will rejoice, and I will divide Sichem; and will mete out the vale of tabernacles. Galaad is mine, and Manasses is mine: and Ephraim is the strength of my head. Juda is my king: Moab is the pot of my hope. Into Edom will I stretch out my shoe: to me the foreigners are made subject.

Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go out with our armies? Give us help from trouble: for vain is the salvation of man. Through God we shall domightily: and he shall bring to nothing them that afflict us.

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM LVIII

A prayer to be delivered from the wicked, with confidence in God's help and protection. It agrees to Christ and his enemies the Jews.

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; and defend me from them that rise up against me. Deliver me from them that work iniquity, and save me from bloody men. For behold they have caught my soul: the mighty have rushed in upon me:  Neither is it my iniquity, nor my sin, O Lord: without iniquity have I run, and directed my steps.

Rise up thou to meet me, and behold: even thou, O Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel. Attend to visit all the nations: have no mercy on all them that work iniquity. They shall return at evening, and shall suffer hunger like dogs: and shall go round about the city. 

Behold they shall speak with their mouth, and a sword is in their lips: for who, say they, hath heard us? But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them: thou shalt bring all the nations to nothing. I will keep my strength to thee: for thou art my protector:

My God, his mercy shall prevent me. God shall let me see over my enemies: slay them not, lest at any time my people forget. Scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord, my protector: For the sin of their mouth, and the word of their lips: and let them be taken in their pride. And for their cursing and lying they shall be talked of, When they are consumed: when they are consumed by thy wrath, and they shall be no more. And they shall know that God will rule Jacob, and all the ends of the earth. They shall return at evening and shall suffer hunger like dogs: and shall go round about the city.

They shall be scattered abroad to eat, and shall murmur if they be not filled.  But I will sing thy strength: and will extol thy mercy in the morning. For thou art become my support, and my refuge, in the day of my trouble.  Unto thee, O my helper, will I sing, for thou art God my defence: my God my mercy.

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM LVII

David reproveth the wicked, and foretelleth their punishment.

Unto the end, destroy not, for David, for an inscription of a title. If in very deed you speak justice: judge right things, ye sons of men. For in your heart you work iniquity: your hands forge injustice in the earth. The wicked are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb: they have spoken false things. Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears:

Which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely. God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth: the Lord shall break the grinders of the lions. They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.  Like wax that melteth they shall be taken away: fire hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun. Before your thorns could know the brier; he swalloweth them up, as alive, in his wrath.

The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.  And man shall say: If indeed there be fruit to the just: there is indeed a God that judgeth them on the earth.

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM LVI

The prophet prays in his affliction, and praises God for his delivery.

Unto the end, destroy not, for David, for an inscription of a title, when he fled from Saul into the cave. [1 Kings 24] Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me: for my soul trusteth in thee. And in the shadow of thy wings will I hope, until iniquity pass away. I will cry to God the most High; to God who hath done good to me.  He hath sent from heaven and delivered me: he hath made them a reproach that trod upon me. God hath sent his mercy and his truth, And he hath delivered my soul from the midst of the young lions. I slept troubled. The sons of men, whose teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

  Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and thy glory above all the earth.  They prepared a snare for my feet; and they bowed down my soul. They dug a pit before my face, and they are fallen into it.  My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will Sing, and rehearse a psalm.  Arise, O my glory, arise psaltery and harp: I will arise early.  I will give praise to thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing a psalm to thee among the nations.

For thy mercy is magnified even to the heavens: and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth.

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM LV

A prayer of David in danger and distress.

Unto the end, for a people that is removed at a distance from the sanctuary for David, for an inscription of a title (or pillar) when the Philistines held him in Geth. Have mercy on me, O God, for man hath trodden me under foot; all the day long he hath afflicted me fighting against me. My enemies have trodden on me all the day long; for they are many that make war against me.  From the height of the day I shall fear: but I will trust in thee. In God I will praise my words, in God I have put my trust: I will not fear what flesh can do against me.

All the day long they detested my words: all their thoughts were against me unto evil. They will dwell and hide themselves: they will watch my heel. As they have waited for my soul,  For nothing shalt thou save them: in thy anger thou shalt break the people in pieces, O God,  I have declared to thee my life: thou hast set my tears in thy sight, As also in thy promise.  Then shall my enemies be turned back. In what day soever I shall call upon thee, behold I know thou art my God.

  In God will I praise the word, in the Lord will I praise his speech. In God have I hoped, I will not fear what man can do to me.  In me, O God, are vows to thee, which I will pay, praises to thee: Because thou hast delivered my soul from death, my feet from falling: that I may please in the sight of God, in the light of the living.

 

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM LIV

A prayer of a just man under persecution from the wicked. It agrees to Christ persecuted by the Jews, and betrayed by Judas.

Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:  Be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled, At the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.  My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.

Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.  And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest? Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness. I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.  Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.

Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour, And injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.  For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him. But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar, Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.

  Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them. But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice. He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me. God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:

He hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,  They are divided by the wrath Of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever. But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM LIII

A prayer for help in distress.

When the men of Ziph had come and said to Saul: Is not David hidden with us?

Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me in thy strength. O God, hear my prayer: give ear to the words of my mouth.  For strangers have risen up against me; and the mighty have sought after my soul: and they have not set God before their eyes.

For behold God is my helper: and the Lord is the protector of my soul. Turn back the evils upon my enemies; and cut them off in thy truth. I will freely sacrifice to thee, and will give praise, O God, to thy name: because it is good: For thou hast delivered me out of all trouble: and my eye hath looked down upon my enemies.

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM LII

The general corruption of man before the coming of Christ.

The fool said in his heart: There is no God. They are corrupted, and become abominable in iniquities: there is none that doth good. God looked down from heaven on the children of men: to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God. All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one. Shall not all the workers of iniquity know, who eat up my people as they eat bread?

They have not called upon God: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear. For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men: they have been confounded, because God hath despised them. Who will give out of Sion the salvation of Israel? when God shall bring back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM LI

David condemneth the wickedness of Doeg, and foretelleth his destruction.

When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul David went to the house of Achimelech. [1 Kings 22]

Why dost thou glory in malice, thou that art mighty in iniquity? All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice: as a sharp razor, thou hast wrought deceit. Thou hast loved malice more than goodness: and iniquity rather than to speak righteousness.

Thou hast loved all the words of ruin, O deceitful tongue. Therefore will God destroy thee for ever: he will pluck thee out, and remove thee from thy dwelling place: and thy root out of the land of the living. The just shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, and say: Behold the man that made not God his helper: But trusted in the abundance of his riches: and prevailed in his vanity.  But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God for ever, yea for ever and ever.

I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name, for it is good in the sight of thy saints.

[Dawn Marie]

PSALM L

The repentance and confession of David after his sin. The fourth penitential psalm.

When Nathan the prophet came to him after he had sinned with Bethsabee. Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy. And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my iniquity. Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me.

 

To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: that thou mayst be justified in thy words and mayst overcome when thou art judged.  For behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me. For behold thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me. Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.  To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness: and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.

Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.  Create a clean heart in me, O God: and renew a right spirit within my bowels. Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.  I will teach the unjust thy ways: and the wicked shall be converted to thee.

 Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall extol thy justice.  O Lord, thou wilt open my lips: and my mouth shall declare thy praise. For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it: with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted. A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion; that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.

Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and whole burnt offerings: then shall they lay calves upon thy altar.