1 Blessed be the Lord my rock, ♦︎
who teaches my hands for war and my fingers for battle;
2 My steadfast help and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield in whom I trust, ♦︎
who subdues the peoples under me.
3 O Lord, what are mortals that you should consider them; ♦︎
mere human beings, that you should take thought for them?
4 They are like a breath of wind; ♦︎
their days pass away like a shadow.
5 Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down; ♦︎
touch the mountains and they shall smoke.
6 Cast down your lightnings and scatter them; ♦︎
shoot out your arrows and let thunder roar.
7 Reach down your hand from on high; ♦︎
deliver me and take me out of the great waters,
from the hand of foreign enemies,
8 Whose mouth speaks wickedness ♦︎
and their right hand is the hand of falsehood.
9 O God, I will sing to you a new song; ♦︎
I will play to you on a ten-stringed harp,
10 You that give salvation to kings ♦︎
and have delivered David your servant.
11 Save me from the peril of the sword ♦︎
and deliver me from the hand of foreign enemies,
12 Whose mouth speaks wickedness ♦︎
and whose right hand is the hand of falsehood;
13 So that our sons in their youth
may be like well-nurtured plants, ♦︎
and our daughters like pillars
carved for the corners of the temple;
14 Our barns be filled with all manner of store; ♦︎
our flocks bearing thousands,
and ten thousands in our fields;
15 Our cattle be heavy with young: ♦︎
may there be no miscarriage or untimely birth,
no cry of distress in our streets.
16 Happy are the people whose blessing this is. ♦︎
Happy are the people who have the Lord for their God.
1 Alleluia.
Praise the Lord, O my soul:
while I live will I praise the Lord; ♦︎
as long as I have any being,
I will sing praises to my God.
2 Put not your trust in princes,
nor in any human power, ♦︎
for there is no help in them.
3 When their breath goes forth, they return to the earth; ♦︎
on that day all their thoughts perish.
4 Happy are those who have the God of Jacob for their help, ♦︎
whose hope is in the Lord their God;
5 Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them; ♦︎
who keeps his promise for ever;
6 Who gives justice to those that suffer wrong ♦︎
and bread to those who hunger.
7 The Lord looses those that are bound; ♦︎
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
8 The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; ♦︎
the Lord loves the righteous;
9 The Lord watches over the stranger in the land;
he upholds the orphan and widow; ♦︎
but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.
10 The Lord shall reign for ever, ♦︎
your God, O Zion, throughout all generations.
Alleluia.