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Psalm 140

1  Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers ♦︎
   and protect me from the violent,
2  Who devise evil in their hearts ♦︎
   and stir up strife all the day long.
3  They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; ♦︎
   adder’s poison is under their lips.
4  Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; ♦︎
   protect me from the violent
      who seek to make me stumble.
5  The proud have laid a snare for me
      and spread out a net of cords; ♦︎
   they have set traps along my path.
6  I have said to the Lord, ‘You are my God; ♦︎
   listen, O Lord, to the voice of my supplication.
7  ‘O Lord God, the strength of my salvation, ♦︎
   you have covered my head in the day of battle.
8  ‘Do not grant the desires of the wicked, O Lord, ♦︎
   do not prosper their wicked plans.
9  ‘Let not those who surround me lift up their heads; ♦︎
   let the evil of their own lips fall upon them.
10  ‘Let hot burning coals rain upon them; ♦︎
   let them be cast into the depths, that they rise not again.’
11  No slanderer shall prosper on the earth, ♦︎
   and evil shall hunt down the violent to overthrow them.
12  I know that the Lord will bring justice for the oppressed ♦︎
   and maintain the cause of the needy.
13  Surely, the righteous will give thanks to your name, ♦︎
   and the upright shall dwell in your presence.

Psalm 142

1  I cry aloud to the Lord; ♦︎
   to the Lord I make my supplication.
2  I pour out my complaint before him ♦︎
   and tell him of my trouble.
3  When my spirit faints within me, you know my path; ♦︎
   in the way wherein I walk have they laid a snare for me.
4  I look to my right hand, and find no one who knows me; ♦︎
   I have no place to flee to, and no one cares for my soul.
5  I cry out to you, O Lord, and say: ♦︎
   ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.
6  ‘Listen to my cry, for I am brought very low; ♦︎
   save me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.
7  ‘Bring my soul out of prison,
      that I may give thanks to your name; ♦︎
   when you have dealt bountifully with me,
      then shall the righteous gather around me.’

God’s Wrath and Mercy

19 You will say to me then, ‘Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ ²⁰But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the one who moulds it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ ²¹Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use? ²²What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath that are made for destruction; ²³and what if he has done so in order to make known the riches of his glory for the objects of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴including us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As indeed he says in Hosea,
‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people”,
   and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved”. ’
²⁶ ‘And in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not my people”,
   there they shall be called children of the living God.’

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved; ²⁸for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.’^{* 29}And as Isaiah predicted,
‘If the Lord of hosts had not left survivors^* to us,
   we would have fared like Sodom
   and been made like Gomorrah.’