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Psalm 137

¹By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.

²On the willows there we hung up our harps.

³For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?

⁵If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!

⁶Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.

⁷Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall, how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!”

⁸O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!

⁹Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!

Psalm 138

¹I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;

²I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have exalted your name and your word above everything.

³On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul.

⁴All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth.

⁵They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.

⁶For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away.

⁷Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me.

⁸The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.

Psalm 139

¹O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

²You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

³You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.

⁵You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

⁷Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

⁸If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

⁹If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

¹⁰even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”

¹²even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

¹³For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

¹⁵My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

¹⁷How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.

¹⁹O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—

²⁰those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil!

²¹Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

²²I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.

²³Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.

²⁴See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 140

¹Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers; protect me from those who are violent,

²who plan evil things in their minds and stir up wars continually.

³They make their tongue sharp as a snake’s, and under their lips is the venom of vipers. Selah

⁴Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent who have planned my downfall.

⁵The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net, along the road they have set snares for me. Selah

⁶I say to the Lord, “You are my God; give ear, O Lord, to the voice of my supplications.”

⁷O Lord, my Lord, my strong deliverer, you have covered my head in the day of battle.

⁸Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot. Selah

⁹Those who surround me lift up their heads; let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them!

¹⁰Let burning coals fall on them! Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise!

¹¹Do not let the slanderer be established in the land; let evil speedily hunt down the violent!

¹²I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy, and executes justice for the poor.

¹³Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall live in your presence.