O Lord, Be Gracious to Us
aAh, you destroyer,
who yourself have not been destroyed,
you traitor,
whom none has betrayed!
When you have ceased to destroy,
you will be destroyed;
and when you have finished betraying,
they will betray you.
2 O Lord, be gracious to us; awe wait for you.
Be our arm every morning,
our salvation in the time of trouble.
3 aAt the tumultuous noise peoples flee;
when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,
4 and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;
aas locusts leap, it is leapt upon.
5 aThe Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
6 aand he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.
7 Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;
athe envoys of peace weep bitterly.
8 aThe highways lie waste;
the traveler ceases.
bCovenants are broken;
cities are despised;
there is no regard for man.
9 aThe land mourns and languishes;
Lebanon is confounded and withers away;
Sharon is like a desert,
and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
10 a“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
“now I will lift myself up;
now I will be exalted.
11 aYou conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;
your breath is ba fire that will consume you.
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
alike thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”
13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
trembling has seized the godless:
a“Who among us can dwell bwith the consuming fire?
Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
15 aHe who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
band shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
16 he will dwell on the heights;
his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
ahis bread will be given him; his water will be sure.
17 aYour eyes will behold the king in his beauty;
bthey will see a land that stretches afar.
18 aYour heart will muse on the terror:
“Where is he who counted, where is bhe who weighed the tribute?
Where is che who counted the towers?”
19 aYou will see no more the insolent people,
the people bof an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.
20 Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!
aYour eyes will see Jerusalem,
an untroubled habitation, an bimmovable tent,
whose stakes will never be plucked up,
nor will any of its cords be broken.
21 But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
a place of abroad rivers and streams,
bwhere no galley with oars can go,
nor majestic ship can pass.
22 For the Lord is our ajudge; the Lord is our blawgiver;
the Lord is our cking; he will save us.
23 Your cords hang loose;
they cannot hold the mast firm in its place
or keep the sail spread out.
aThen prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;
even bthe lame will take the prey.
24 And no inhabitant will say, a“I am sick”;
bthe people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.