O God, Do Not Keep Silence

A Song. A Psalm of Asaph.

¹O God, do not keep silence;

do not hold your peace or be still, O God!

²For behold, your enemies make an uproar;

those who hate you have raised their heads.

³They lay crafty plans against your people;

they consult together against your treasured ones.

⁴They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;

let the name of Israel be remembered no more!”

⁵For they conspire with one accord;

against you they make a covenant—

⁶the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,

Moab and the Hagrites,

⁷Gebal and Ammon and Amalek,

Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;

⁸Asshur also has joined them;

they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. Selah

⁹Do to them as you did to Midian,

as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,

¹⁰who were destroyed at En-dor,

who became dung for the ground.

¹¹Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,

all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

¹²who said, “Let us take possession for ourselves

of the pastures of God.”

¹³O my God, make them like whirling dust,1

like chaff before the wind.

¹⁴As fire consumes the forest,

as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,

¹⁵so may you pursue them with your tempest

and terrify them with your hurricane!

¹⁶Fill their faces with shame,

that they may seek your name, O Lord.

¹⁷Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;

let them perish in disgrace,

¹⁸that they may know that you alone,

whose name is the Lord,

are the Most High over all the earth.

My Soul Longs for the Courts of the Lord

To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith.1 A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹How lovely is your dwelling place,

O Lord of hosts!

²My soul longs, yes, faints

for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and flesh sing for joy

to the living God.

³Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may lay her young,

at your altars, O Lord of hosts,

my King and my God.

⁴Blessed are those who dwell in your house,

ever singing your praise! Selah

⁵Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

in whose heart are the highways to Zion.2

⁶As they go through the Valley of Baca

they make it a place of springs;

the early rain also covers it with pools.

⁷They go from strength to strength;

each one appears before God in Zion.

⁸O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;

give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah

⁹Behold our shield, O God;

look on the face of your anointed!

¹⁰For a day in your courts is better

than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

¹¹For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

the Lord bestows favor and honor.

No good thing does he withhold

from those who walk uprightly.

¹²O Lord of hosts,

blessed is the one who trusts in you!