Psalms 9 and 10
I will praise Yahweh with all my heart;
I will tell about all your marvelous works.
I will rejoice, I will exult in you;
I will chant your name, O Most High.
When my enemies turn backward,
they will stumble and perish before your face.
For you guarantee my justice and my cause;
You sit enthroned as a righteous judge.
You have rebuked the nations;
You have destroyed the wicked;
Their name you have blotted out forever and ever.
As for the enemy, they are finished, ruined forever;
As for their cities, you have uprooted them,
their memory has perished.
Behold Yahweh sits enthroned forever;
he has committed his throne to justice.
Aye, he will judge the world with righteousness;
He will adjudicate the peoples with equity.
But Yahweh is a refuge for the oppressed;
a refuge for times of trouble.
Those who know your reputation (name) trust in you;
For you, Yahweh, do not abandon those who seek you.
Chant to Yahweh who sits enthroned in Zion;
Narrate among the peoples his deeds.
For the-one-who-seeks-restitution-for-violence has remembered them;
He has not forgotten the cry of the afflicted.
Have mercy on me, Yahweh;
See how I am afflicted by those who hate me.
You are the-one-who-raises-me-up from the gates of death,
So that I might recount all your praiseworthy actions in the gates of daughter-Zion.
I will rejoice in the deliverance you give.
Nations have sunk into the pit they have made.
Their foot is captured in the net which they have hidden.
Yahweh has made himself known;
He has guaranteed justice,
By the power of his hands striking down the wicked.
The wicked shall return to Sheol;
All the nations who forget God.
The poor will not be forgotten forever;
Nor will the hope of the afflicted perish for all time.
Rise up, Yahweh, do not let mere mortals be strong.
Let the nations be judged before your face.
Give fear to them, Yahweh;
Let the nations know that they are only mortal.
Why, Yahweh, do you stand at such a great distance?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
In arrogance the wicked pursue the poor.
Let them be caught in the very schemes they have designed.
For the wicked have boasted about their inmost desires;
Those who rob "utter curses."
In their arrogance the wicked spurn Yahweh:
"He does not seek [justice]; God does not exist!"
Such are all their schemes;
their ways are always the same.
Your acts of justice are far from them;
They snort at all those who oppose them.
The wicked say in their heart, "We will never be moved."
"Happiness comes without calamity"--that’s their oath.
Their mouth is full of deceit and oppression;
Under their tongue they savor trouble and iniquity.
They lie in ambush in the villages;
In secret places they kill the innocent;
Their eyes prey on the luckless.
They lie in ambush secretly, like a lion in its covert;
They lie in ambush to seize the afflicted.
They seize the afflicted by dragging them in their net.
But the righteous are crushed; they are bowed down;
The battalion of the frightened fall into the claws of the wicked.
The wicked say in their heart, "God has forgotten!
He has hidden his face!
He’ll never see!"
Rise up, Yahweh God; raise your hand.
Do not forget the afflicted.
Why should the wicked spurn God?
They say in their heart, "You, God, do not seek [justice]."
But you see their trouble and their vexation--yes, you do!
You will continue to observe them, to requite by your hand.
On you the luckless abandon themselves;
As for orphans--you are their helper.
Break the arm of the wicked and evil.
Seek out their wickedness;
You are bound to find it.
May Yahweh be king forever and ever;
May the wicked perish from his land.
Yahweh, you listen to the inmost desires of the afflicted;
You make their heart brave;
You pay attention with your ear.
Yahweh will continue to provide justice for the orphan and the oppressed;
by frightening mere mortals out of the land.
Note: Psalms 9 and 10 are treated correctly as one Psalm in the Septuagint. Every other verse begins with a successive letter of the alphabet, with the final letter of the alphabet appearing in 10:17.
© 2001 Ralph W. Klein