I Love the Lord

¹I love the Lord, because he has heard

my voice and my pleas for mercy.

²Because he inclined his ear to me,

therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

³The snares of death encompassed me;

the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;

I suffered distress and anguish.

⁴Then I called on the name of the Lord:

“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

⁵Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;

our God is merciful.

⁶The Lord preserves the simple;

when I was brought low, he saved me.

⁷Return, O my soul, to your rest;

for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

⁸For you have delivered my soul from death,

my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling;

⁹I will walk before the Lord

in the land of the living.

¹⁰I believed, even when1 I spoke:

“I am greatly afflicted”;

¹¹I said in my alarm,

“All mankind are liars.”

¹²What shall I render to the Lord

for all his benefits to me?

¹³I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the Lord,

¹⁴I will pay my vows to the Lord

in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵Precious in the sight of the Lord

is the death of his saints.

¹⁶O Lord, I am your servant;

I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.

You have loosed my bonds.

¹⁷I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving

and call on the name of the Lord.

¹⁸I will pay my vows to the Lord

in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹in the courts of the house of the Lord,

in your midst, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!