1¤ O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.2Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.3For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.4I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,5Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.6They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.7Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.8Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:9My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.10Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?11Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?12Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?13But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.14Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?15I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.16Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.17They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.18Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.

Of understanding, for Ethan the Ezrahite.1¤ The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever. I will shew forth thy truth with my mouth to generation and generation.2For thou hast said: Mercy shall be built up for ever in the heavens: thy truth shall be prepared in them.3I have made a covenant with my elect: I have sworn to David my servant:4Thy seed will I settle for ever. And I will build up thy throne unto generation and generation.5The heavens shall confess thy wonders, O Lord: and thy truth in the church of the saints.6For who in the clouds can be compared to the Lord: or who among the sons of God shall be like to God?7God, who is glorified in the assembly of the saints: great and terrible above all them that are about him.8O Lord God of hosts, who is like to thee? thou art mighty, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee.9Thou rulest the power of the sea: and appeasest the motion of the waves thereof.10Thou hast humbled the proud one, as one that is slain: with the arm of thy strength thou hast scattered thy enemies.11Thine are the heavens, and thine is the earth: the world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded:12The north and the sea thou hast created. Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name:13Thy arm is with might. Let thy hand be strengthened, and thy right hand exalted:14Justice and judgment are the preparation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face:15Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance:16And in thy name they shall rejoice all the day, and in thy justice they shall be exalted.17For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy good pleasure shall our horn be exalted.18For our protection is of the Lord, and of our king the holy one of Israel.19Then thou spokest in a vision to thy saints, and saidst: I have laid help upon one that is mighty, and have exalted one chosen out of my people.20I have found David my servant: with my holy oil I have anointed him.21For my hand shall help him: and my arm shall strengthen him.22The enemy shall have no advantage over him: nor the son of iniquity have power to hurt him.23And I will cut down his enemies before his face; and them that hate him I will put to flight.24And my truth and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.25And I will set his hand in the sea; and his right hand in the rivers.26He shall cry out to me: Thou art my father: my God, and the support of my salvation.27And I will make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the earth.28I will keep my mercy for him for ever: and my covenant faithful to him.29And I will make his seed to endure for evermore: and his throne as the days of heaven.30And if his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments:31If they profane my justices: and keep not my commandments:32I will visit their iniquities with a rod and their sins with stripes.33But my mercy I will not take away from him: nor will I suffer my truth to fail.34Neither will I profane my covenant: and the words that proceed from my mouth I will not make void.35Once have I sworn by my holiness: I will not lie unto David:36His seed shall endure for ever.37And his throne as the sun before me: and as the moon perfect for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven.38But thou hast rejected and despised: thou hast been angry with thy anointed.39Thou hast overthrown the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his sanctuary on the earth.40Thou hast broken down all his hedges: thou hast made his strength fear.41All that pass by the way have robbed him: he is become a reproach to his neighbours.42Thou hast set up the right hand of them that oppress him: thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.43Thou hast turned away the help of his sword; and hast not assisted him in battle.44Thou hast made his purification to cease: and thou hast cast his throne down to the ground.45Thou hast shortened the days of his time: thou hast covered him with confusion.46How long, O Lord, turnest thou away unto the end? shall thy anger burn like fire?47Remember what my substance is: for hast thou made all the children of men in vain?48Who is the man that shall live, and not see death: that shall deliver his soul from the hand of hell?49Lord, where are thy ancient mercies, according to what thou didst swear to David in thy truth?50Be mindful, O Lord, of the reproach of thy servants (which I have held in my bosom) of many nations:51Wherewith thy enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the change of thy anointed.52Blessed be the Lord for evermore. So be it. So be it.

A prayer of Moses the man of God.1¤ Lord, thou hast been our refuge from generation to generation.2Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed; from eternity and to eternity thou art God.3Turn not man away to be brought low: and thou hast said: Be converted, O ye sons of men.4For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday, which is past. And as a watch in the night,5Things that are counted nothing, shall their years be.6In the morning man shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish and pass away: in the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and wither.7For in thy wrath we have fainted away: and are troubled in thy indignation.8Thou hast set our iniquities before thy eyes: our life in the light of thy countenance.9For all our days are spent; and in thy wrath we have fainted away. Our years shall be considered as a spider:10The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years. But if in the strong they be fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow. For mildness is come upon us: and we shall be corrected.11Who knoweth the power of thy anger, and for thy fear12Can number thy wrath? So make thy right hand known: and men learned in heart, in wisdom.13Return, O Lord, how long? and be entreated in favour of thy servants.14We are filled in the morning with thy mercy: and we have rejoiced, and are delighted all our days.15We have rejoiced for the days in which thou hast humbled us: for the years in which we have seen evils.16Look upon thy servants and upon their works: and direct their children.17And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us: and direct thou the works of our hands over us; yea, the work of our hands do thou direct.