Bible Reading Plan – Day 109

₁Be merciful to me, O God,

because of your constant love.

Because of your great mercy

wipe away my sins!

₂Wash away all my evil

and make me clean from my sin!

₃I recognize my faults;

I am always conscious of my sins.

₄I have sinned against you — only against you —

and done what you consider evil.

So you are right in judging me;

you are justified in condemning me.

₅I have been evil from the day I was born;

from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful.

₆Sincerity and truth are what you require;

fill my mind with your wisdom.

₇Remove my sin, and I will be clean;

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

₈Let me hear the sounds of joy and gladness;

and though you have crushed me and broken me,

I will be happy once again.

₉Close your eyes to my sins

and wipe out all my evil.

₁₀Create a pure heart in me, O God,

and put a new and loyal spirit in me.

₁₁Do not banish me from your presence;

do not take your Holy Spirit away from me.

₁₂Give me again the joy that comes from your salvation,

and make me willing to obey you.

₁₃Then I will teach sinners your commands,

and they will turn back to you.

₁₄Spare my life, O God, and save me,

and I will gladly proclaim your righteousness.

₁₅Help me to speak, Lord,

and I will praise you.

₁₆You do not want sacrifices,

or I would offer them;

you are not pleased with burnt offerings.

₁₇My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God;

you will not reject a humble and repentant heart.

₁₈O God, be kind to Zion and help her;

rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

₁₉Then you will be pleased with proper sacrifices

and with our burnt offerings;

and bulls will be sacrificed on your altar.

₁Why do you boast, great one, of your evil?

God's faithfulness is eternal.

₂You make plans to ruin others;

your tongue is like a sharp razor.

You are always inventing lies.

₃You love evil more than good

and falsehood more than truth.

₄You love to hurt people with your words, you liar!

₅So God will ruin you for ever;

he will take hold of you and snatch you from your home;

he will remove you from the world of the living.

₆Righteous people will see this and be afraid;

then they will laugh at you and say,

₇“Look, here is someone who did not depend on God for safety,

but trusted instead in his great wealth

and looked for security in being wicked.”

₈But I am like an olive tree growing in the house of God;

I trust in his constant love for ever and ever.

₉I will always thank you, God, for what you have done;

in the presence of your people

I will proclaim that you are good.

₁Fools say to themselves,

“There is no God.”

They are all corrupt,

and they have done terrible things;

there is no one who does what is right.

₂God looks down from heaven at the human race

to see if there are any who are wise,

any who worship him.

₃But they have all turned away;

they are all equally bad.

Not one of them does what is right,

not a single one.

₄“Don't they know?” God asks.

“Are these evildoers ignorant?

They live by robbing my people,

and they never pray to me.”

₅But then they will be terrified,

as they have never been before,

for God will scatter the bones of the enemies of his people.

God has rejected them,

and so Israel will totally defeat them.

₆How I pray that victory

will come to Israel from Zion.

How happy the people of Israel will be

when God makes them prosperous again!

₁Save me by your power, O God;

set me free by your might!

₂Hear my prayer, O God;

listen to my words!

₃Proud men are coming to attack me;

cruel men are trying to kill me —

men who do not care about God.

₄But God is my helper.

The Lord is my defender.

₅May God use their own evil to punish my enemies.

He will destroy them because he is faithful.

₆I will gladly offer you a sacrifice, O LORD;

I will give you thanks

because you are good.

₇You have rescued me from all my troubles,

and I have seen my enemies defeated.

₁Hear my prayer, O God;

don't turn away from my plea!

₂Listen to me and answer me;

I am worn out by my worries.

₃I am terrified by the threats of my enemies,

crushed by the oppression of the wicked.

They bring trouble on me;

they are angry with me and hate me.

₄I am terrified,

and the terrors of death crush me.

₅I am gripped by fear and trembling;

I am overcome with horror.

₆I wish I had wings, like a dove.

I would fly away and find rest.

₇I would fly far away

and make my home in the desert.

₈I would quickly find myself a shelter

from the raging wind and the storm.

₉Confuse the speech of my enemies, O Lord!

I see violence and riots in the city,

₁₀surrounding it day and night,

filling it with crime and trouble.

₁₁There is destruction everywhere;

the streets are full of oppression and fraud.

₁₂If it were an enemy that mocked me,

I could endure it;

if it were an opponent boasting over me,

I could hide myself from him.

₁₃But it is you, my companion,

my colleague and close friend.

₁₄We had intimate talks with each other

and worshipped together in the Temple.

₁₅May my enemies die before their time;

may they go down alive into the world of the dead!

Evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

₁₆But I call to the LORD God for help,

and he will save me.

₁₇Morning, noon, and night

my complaints and groans go up to him,

and he will hear my voice.

₁₈He will bring me safely back

from the battles that I fight

against so many enemies.

₁₉God, who has ruled from eternity,

will hear me and defeat them;

for they refuse to change,

and they do not fear him.

₂₀My former companion attacked his friends;

he broke his promises.

₂₁His words were smoother than cream,

but there was hatred in his heart;

his words were as soothing as oil,

but they cut like sharp swords.

₂₂Leave your troubles with the LORD,

and he will defend you;

he never lets honest people be defeated.

₂₃But you, O God, will bring those murderers and liars to their graves

before half their life is over.

As for me, I will trust in you.

₁Be merciful to me, O God,

because I am under attack;

my enemies persecute me all the time.

₂All day long my opponents attack me.

There are so many who fight against me.

₃When I am afraid, O LORD Almighty,

I put my trust in you.

₄I trust in God and am not afraid;

I praise him for what he has promised.

What can a mere human being do to me?

₅My enemies make trouble for me all day long;

they are always planning how to hurt me!

₆They gather in hiding places

and watch everything I do,

hoping to kill me.

₇Punish them, O God, for their evil;

defeat those people in your anger!

₈You know how troubled I am;

you have kept a record of my tears.

Aren't they listed in your book?

₉The day I call to you,

my enemies will be turned back.

I know this: God is on my side —

₁₀the LORD, whose promises I praise.

₁₁In him I trust, and I will not be afraid.

What can a mere human being do to me?

₁₂O God, I will offer you what I have promised;

I will give you my offering of thanksgiving,

₁₃because you have rescued me from death

and kept me from defeat.

And so I walk in the presence of God,

in the light that shines on the living.

₁Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful,

because I come to you for safety.

In the shadow of your wings I find protection

until the raging storms are over.

₂I call to God, the Most High,

to God, who supplies my every need.

₃He will answer from heaven and save me;

he will defeat my oppressors.

God will show me his constant love and faithfulness.

₄I am surrounded by enemies,

who are like lions hungry for human flesh.

Their teeth are like spears and arrows;

their tongues are like sharp swords.

₅Show your greatness in the sky, O God,

and your glory over all the earth.

₆My enemies have spread a net to catch me;

I am overcome with distress.

They dug a pit in my path,

but fell into it themselves.

₇I have complete confidence, O God;

I will sing and praise you!

₈Wake up, my soul!

Wake up, my harp and lyre!

I will wake up the sun.

₉I will thank you, O Lord, among the nations.

I will praise you among the peoples.

₁₀Your constant love reaches the heavens;

your faithfulness touches the skies.

₁₁Show your greatness in the sky, O God,

and your glory over all the earth.