Psalms - Chapter 88

Passage

Of understanding, for Ethan the Ezrahite. The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever. I will show forth your truth with my mouth to generation and generation. For you have said: Mercy shall be built up for ever in the heavens: your truth shall be prepared in them. I have made a covenant with my elect: I have sworn to David my servant: Your seed will I settle for ever. And I will build up your throne to generation and generation. The heavens shall confess your wonders, O Lord: and your truth in the church of the saints. For who in the clouds can be compared to the Lord: or who among the sons of God shall be like to God? God, who is glorified in the assembly of the saints: great and terrible above all them that are about him. O Lord God of hosts, who is like to you? you are mighty, O Lord, and your truth is round about you. You rule the power of the sea: and appeasest the motion of the waves thereof. You have humbled the proud one, as one that is slain: with the arm of your strength you have scattered your enemies. Yours are the heavens, and yours is the earth: the world and the fulness thereof you have founded: The north and the sea you have created. Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in your name: Your arm is with might. Let your hand be strengthened, and your right hand exalted: Justice and judgment are the preparation of your throne. Mercy and truth shall go before your face: Blessed is the people that knows jubilation. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance: And in your name they shall rejoice all the day, and in your justice they shall be exalted. For you are the glory of their strength: and in your good pleasure shall our horn be exalted. For our protection is of the Lord, and of our king the holy one of Israel. Then you spoke in a vision to your saints, and said: I have laid help upon one that is mighty, and have exalted one chosen out of my people. I have found David my servant: with my holy oil I have anointed him. For my hand shall help him: and my arm shall strengthen him. The enemy shall have no advantage over him: nor the son of iniquity have power to hurt him. And I will cut down his enemies before his face; and them that hate him I will put to flight. And my truth and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted. And I will set his hand in the sea; and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry out to me: You are my father: my God, and the support of my salvation. And I will make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the earth. I will keep my mercy for him for ever: and my covenant faithful to him. And I will make his seed to endure for evermore: and his throne as the days of heaven. And if his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments: If they profane my justices: and keep not my commandments: I will visit their iniquities with a rod and their sins with stripes. But my mercy I will not take away from him: nor will I suffer my truth to fail. Neither will I profane my covenant: and the words that proceed from my mouth I will not make void. Once have I sworn by my holiness: I will not lie to David: His seed shall endure for ever. And his throne as the sun before me: And as the moon perfect for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven. But you have rejected and despised: you have been angry with my anointed. You have overthrown the covenant of your servant: you have profaned his sanctuary on the earth. You have broken down all his hedges: you have made his strength fear. All that pass by the way have robbed him: he is become a reproach to his neighbors. You have set up the right hand of them that oppress him: you have made all his enemies to rejoice. You have turned away the help of his sword; and have not assisted him in battle. You have made his purification to cease: and you have cast his throne down to the ground. You have shortened the days of his time: you have covered him with confusion. How long, O Lord, do you turn away to the end? shall your anger burn like fire? Remember what my substance is: for have you made all the children of men in vain? Who is the man that shall live, and not see death: that shall deliver his soul from the hand of hell? Lord, where are your ancient mercies, according to what you did swear to David in your truth? Be mindful, O Lord, of the reproach of your servants (which I have held in my bosom) of many nations: With which your enemies have reproached, O Lord; with which they have reproached the change of your anointed. Blessed be the Lord for evermore. So be it. So be it.