HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 855
PSAL M 12
page 485
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The wicked are too proud to seek God.
They seem to think that God is dead.
Yet they succeed in everything they do.
They do not see your punishment
awaiting them.
They sneer at all their enemies.
They think, “Nothing bad will ever happen
to us!
We will be free of trouble forever!”
Their mouths are full of cursing, lies,
and threats.*
Trouble and evil are on the tips of their
tongues.
They lurk in ambush in the villages,
waiting to murder innocent people.
They are always searching for helpless
victims.
Like lions crouched in hiding,
they wait to pounce on the helpless.
Like hunters they capture the helpless
and drag them away in nets.
Their helpless victims are crushed;
they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.
The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us!
He has closed his eyes and won’t even
see what we do!”
Arise, O Lord!
Punish the wicked, O God!
Do not ignore the helpless!
Why do the wicked get away with
despising God?
They think, “God will never call us
to account.”
But you see the trouble and grief they cause.
You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
You defend the orphans.
Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!
Go after them until the last one is
destroyed.
The Lord is king forever and ever!
The godless nations will vanish from
the land.
Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will hear their cries and
comfort them.
You will bring justice to the orphans and
the oppressed,
so mere people can no longer terrify them.
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The Lord is a shelter for
the oppressed, a refuge
in times of trouble.
P SA L M 9:9
12
For the choir director: A psalm of David,
to be accompanied by an eight-stringed
instrument.*
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For the choir director: A psalm of David.
I trust in the Lord for protection.
So why do you say to me,
“Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!
The wicked are stringing their bows
and fitting their arrows on the bowstrings.
10:7 Greek version reads cursing and bitterness. Compare
Rom 3:14. 12:title Hebrew according to the sheminith.
But the Lord is in his holy Temple;
the Lord still rules from heaven.
He watches everyone closely,
examining every person on earth.
The Lord examines both the righteous and
the wicked.
He hates those who love violence.
He will rain down blazing coals and burning
sulfur on the wicked,
punishing them with scorching winds.
For the righteous Lord loves justice.
The virtuous will see his face.
— promises —
from God
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They shoot from the shadows
at those whose hearts are right.
The foundations of law and order
have collapsed.
What can the righteous do?”
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Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast
disappearing!
The faithful have vanished from
the earth!
Neighbors lie to each other,
speaking with flattering lips and
deceitful hearts.
May the Lord cut off their flattering lips
and silence their boastful tongues.
They say, “We will lie to our hearts’
content.
Our lips are our own—who can
stop us?”
The Lord replies, “I have seen violence
done to the helpless,
and I have heard the groans of the poor.
Now I will rise up to rescue them,
as they have longed for me to do.”
The Lord’s promises are pure,
like silver refined in a furnace,
purified seven times over.
Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect
the oppressed,
preserving them forever from this lying
generation,
even though the wicked strut about,
and evil is praised throughout the
land.