For his anger lasts only a brief moment, and his good favor restores one’s life. ¹  One may experience sorrow during the night, but joy arrives in the morning. ² 

For my life nears its end in pain; my years draw to a close as I groan. ¹  My strength fails me because of ²  my sin, and my bones become brittle. ³ 

Do you want to really live? ¹  Would you love to live a long, happy life? ² 

I thirst ¹  for God, for the living God. I say, ²  “When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?” ³ 

By day the Lord decrees his loyal love, ¹  and by night he gives me a song, ²  a prayer ³  to the living God.

He pronounces this blessing on himself while he is alive: “May men praise you, for you have done well!”

Yet ¹  God will make you a permanent heap of ruins. ²  He will scoop you up ³  and remove you from your home; ⁴  he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)

May death destroy them! ¹  May they go down alive into Sheol! ²  For evil is in their dwelling place and in their midst.

Before the kindling is even placed under your pots, ¹  he ²  will sweep it away along with both the raw and cooked meat. ³ 

For the music director; a psalm of David. Listen to me, ²  O God, as I offer my lament! Protect ³  my life from the enemy’s terrifying attacks. ⁴ 

He sent his anger in full force; ¹  he did not spare them from death; he handed their lives over to destruction. ² 

They have given the corpses of your servants to the birds of the sky; ¹  the flesh of your loyal followers to the beasts of the earth.

You make it dark and night comes, ¹  during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.

May the Lord bless you ¹  from Zion, that you might see ²  Jerusalem ³  prosper all the days of your life,

I cry out to you, O Lord; I say, “You are my shelter, my security ¹  in the land of the living.”

Do not sit in judgment on ¹  your servant, for no one alive is innocent before you. ² 

Certainly ¹  my enemies ²  chase me. They smash me into the ground. ³  They force me to live ⁴  in dark regions, ⁵  like those who have been dead for ages.

For the commandments ¹  are like ²  a lamp, ³  instruction is like a light, and rebukes of discipline are like ⁴  the road leading to life, ⁵ 

I have concluded ¹  that there is nothing better for people ²  than ³  to be happy and to enjoy themselves ⁴  as long as they live,

So what advantage does a wise man have over a fool? ¹  And what advantage ²  does a pauper gain by knowing how to survive? ³