1. O Lord, the God who avenges!
1. O God who avenges, reveal your splendor!
2. Rise up, O judge of the earth!
2. Pay back the proud!
3. O Lord, how long will the wicked,
3. how long will the wicked celebrate?
4. They spew out threats and speak defiantly;
4. all the evildoers boast.
5. O Lord, they crush your people;
5. they oppress the nation that belongs to you.
6. They kill the widow and the one residing outside his native land,
6. and they murder the fatherless.
7. Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;
7. the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.”
8. Take notice of this, you ignorant people!
8. You fools, when will you ever understand?
9. Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?
9. Does the one who forms the human eye not see?
10. Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?
10. He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!
11. The Lord knows that
11. peoples’ thoughts are morally bankrupt.
12. How blessed is the one whom you instruct, O Lord,
12. the one whom you teach from your law,
13. in order to protect him from times of trouble,
13. until the wicked are destroyed.
14. Certainly the Lord does not forsake his people;
14. he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him.
15. For justice will prevail,
15. and all the morally upright will be vindicated.
16. Who will rise up to defend me against the wicked?
16. Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?
17. If the Lord had not helped me,
17. I would have laid down in the silence of death.
18. If I say, “My foot is slipping,”
18. your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.
19. When worries threaten to overwhelm me,
19. your soothing touch makes me happy.
20. Cruel rulers are not your allies,
20. those who make oppressive laws.
21. They conspire against the blameless,
21. and condemn to death the innocent.
22. But the Lord will protect me,
22. and my God will shelter me.
23. He will pay them back for their sin.
23. He will destroy them because of their evil;
23. the Lord our God will destroy them.