A psalm of David, written when he fled from his son Absalom. ²  Lord, how ³  numerous are my enemies! Many attack me. ⁴ 

Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant ¹  sins; do not allow such sins to control me. ²  Then I will be blameless, and innocent of blatant ³  rebellion.

For I hear what so many are saying, ¹  the terrifying news that comes from every direction. ²  When they plot together against me, they figure out how they can take my life.

How great is your favor, ¹  which you store up for your loyal followers! ²  In plain sight of everyone you bestow it on those who take shelter ³  in you. ⁴ 

For this reason every one of your faithful followers ¹  should pray to you while there is a window of opportunity. ²  Certainly ³  when the surging water ⁴  rises, it will not reach them. ⁵ 

O Lord, my God, you have accomplished many things; you have done amazing things and carried out your purposes for us. ¹  No one can thwart you! ²  I want to declare them and talk about them, but they are too numerous to recount! ³ 

I have not failed to tell about your justice; ¹  I spoke about your reliability and deliverance; I have not neglected to tell the great assembly about your loyal love and faithfulness. ² 

It is lofty and pleasing to look at, ¹  a source of joy to the whole earth. ²  Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; ³  it is the city of the great king.

You visit the earth and give it rain; ¹  you make it rich and fertile ²  with overflowing streams full of water. ³  You provide grain for them, ⁴  for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ⁵ 

For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; however, he must hand over ¹  the fruit of his labor ²  as an inheritance ³  to someone else who did not work for it. This also is futile, and an awful injustice! ⁴ 

This alone have I discovered: God made humankind upright, but they have sought many evil schemes.

The Lord who commands armies told me this: ¹  “Many houses will certainly become desolate, large, impressive houses will have no one living in them. ² 

¹ There is a loud noise on the mountains – it sounds like a large army! ²  There is great commotion among the kingdoms ³  – nations are being assembled! The Lord who commands armies is mustering forces for battle.

The many nations massing together are as good as dead, ¹  those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. ²  The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, ³  those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. ⁴ 

Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ¹  when he shouts at ²  them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills, or like dead thistles ³  before a strong gale.

It ¹  will become a visual reminder in the land of Egypt of ²  the Lord who commands armies. When they cry out to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a deliverer and defender ³  who will rescue them.

On every high mountain and every high hill there will be streams flowing with water, at the time of ¹  great slaughter when the fortified towers collapse.

Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Did you not make ¹  a path through the depths of the sea, so those delivered from bondage ²  could cross over?

his form was so marred he no longer looked human ¹  – so now ²  he will startle ³  many nations. Kings will be shocked by his exaltation, ⁴  for they will witness something unannounced to them, and they will understand something they had not heard about.

“Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth! Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one are more numerous than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.