Rejoicing in Answered Prayer

A Psalm of David.

28 To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock:Do not be silent to me,Lest, if You are silent to me,I become like those who go down to the pit.² Hear the voice of my supplicationsWhen I cry to You,When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.

³ Do not take me away with the wickedAnd with the workers of iniquity,Who speak peace to their neighbors,But evil is in their hearts.⁴ Give them according to their deeds,And according to the wickedness of their endeavors;Give them according to the work of their hands;Render to them what they deserve.⁵ Because they do not regard the works of the Lord,Nor the operation of His hands,He shall destroy themAnd not build them up.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord,Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!⁷ The Lord is my strength and my shield;My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,And with my song I will praise Him.

⁸ The Lord is their strength,^[a]And He is the saving refuge of His anointed.⁹ Save Your people,And bless Your inheritance;Shepherd them also,And bear them up forever.

Praise to God in His Holiness and Majesty

A Psalm of David.

29 Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones,Give unto the Lord glory and strength.² Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name;Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

³ The voice of the Lord is over the waters;The God of glory thunders;The Lord is over many waters.⁴ The voice of the Lord is powerful;The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

⁵ The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars,Yes, the Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon.⁶ He makes them also skip like a calf,Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.⁷ The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire.

⁸ The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;The Lord shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.⁹ The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth,And strips the forests bare;And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”

¹⁰ The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood,And the Lord sits as King forever.¹¹ The Lord will give strength to His people;The Lord will bless His people with peace.

The Blessedness of Answered Prayer

A Psalm. A Song at the dedication of the house of David.

30 I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,And have not let my foes rejoice over me.² O Lord my God, I cried out to You,And You healed me.³ O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave;You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.^[b]

⁴ Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.^[c]5 For His anger is but for a moment,His favor is for life;Weeping may endure for a night,But joy comes in the morning.

⁶ Now in my prosperity I said,“I shall never be moved.”⁷ Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;You hid Your face, and I was troubled.

⁸ I cried out to You, O Lord;And to the Lord I made supplication:⁹ “What profit is there in my blood,When I go down to the pit?Will the dust praise You?Will it declare Your truth?¹⁰ Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me;Lord, be my helper!”

¹¹ You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,¹² To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

The Lord a Fortress in Adversity

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

31 In You, O Lord, I put my trust;Let me never be ashamed;Deliver me in Your righteousness.² Bow down Your ear to me,Deliver me speedily;Be my rock of refuge,A fortress of defense to save me.

³ For You are my rock and my fortress;Therefore, for Your name’s sake,Lead me and guide me.⁴ Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,For You are my strength.⁵ Into Your hand I commit my spirit;You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

⁶ I have hated those who regard useless idols;But I trust in the Lord.⁷ I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy,For You have considered my trouble;You have known my soul in adversities,⁸ And have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy;You have set my feet in a wide place.

⁹ Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;My eye wastes away with grief,Yes, my soul and my body!¹⁰ For my life is spent with grief,And my years with sighing;My strength fails because of my iniquity,And my bones waste away.¹¹ I am a reproach among all my enemies,But especially among my neighbors,And am repulsive to my acquaintances;Those who see me outside flee from me.¹² I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind;I am like a broken vessel.¹³ For I hear the slander of many;Fear is on every side;While they take counsel together against me,They scheme to take away my life.

¹⁴ But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord;I say, “You are my God.”¹⁵ My times are in Your hand;Deliver me from the hand of my enemies,And from those who persecute me.¹⁶ Make Your face shine upon Your servant;Save me for Your mercies’ sake.¹⁷ Do not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon You;Let the wicked be ashamed;Let them be silent in the grave.¹⁸ Let the lying lips be put to silence,Which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.

¹⁹ Oh, how great is Your goodness,Which You have laid up for those who fear You,Which You have prepared for those who trust in YouIn the presence of the sons of men!²⁰ You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presenceFrom the plots of man;You shall keep them secretly in a pavilionFrom the strife of tongues.

²¹ Blessed be the Lord,For He has shown me His marvelous kindness in a strong city!²² For I said in my haste,“I am cut off from before Your eyes”;Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplicationsWhen I cried out to You.

²³ Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints!For the Lord preserves the faithful,And fully repays the proud person.²⁴ Be of good courage,And He shall strengthen your heart,All you who hope in the Lord.

The Joy of Forgiveness

A Psalm of David. A Contemplation.^[d]

32 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,Whose sin is covered.² Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity,And in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³ When I kept silent, my bones grew oldThrough my groaning all the day long.⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah⁵ I acknowledged my sin to You,And my iniquity I have not hidden.I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

⁶ For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to YouIn a time when You may be found;Surely in a flood of great watersThey shall not come near him.⁷ You are my hiding place;You shall preserve me from trouble;You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

⁸ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;I will guide you with My eye.⁹ Do not be like the horse or like the mule,Which have no understanding,Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,Else they will not come near you.

¹⁰ Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.¹¹ Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous;And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

The Sovereignty of the Lord in Creation and History

33 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous!For praise from the upright is beautiful.² Praise the Lord with the harp;Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.³ Sing to Him a new song;Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

⁴ For the word of the Lord is right,And all His work is done in truth.⁵ He loves righteousness and justice;The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

⁶ By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;^[e]He lays up the deep in storehouses.

⁸ Let all the earth fear the Lord;Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.⁹ For He spoke, and it was done;He commanded, and it stood fast.

¹⁰ The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.¹¹ The counsel of the Lord stands forever,The plans of His heart to all generations.¹² Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

¹³ The Lord looks from heaven;He sees all the sons of men.¹⁴ From the place of His dwelling He looksOn all the inhabitants of the earth;¹⁵ He fashions their hearts individually;He considers all their works.

¹⁶ No king is saved by the multitude of an army;A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.¹⁷ A horse is a vain hope for safety;Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

¹⁸ Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,On those who hope in His mercy,¹⁹ To deliver their soul from death,And to keep them alive in famine.

²⁰ Our soul waits for the Lord;He is our help and our shield.²¹ For our heart shall rejoice in Him,Because we have trusted in His holy name.²² Let Your mercy, O Lord, be upon us,Just as we hope in You.