Psalms 143

1Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to fight, and my fingers to war.

1 Jehovah, hear my prayer; give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, in thy righteousness.

2My mercy, and my refuge: my support, and my deliverer: My protector, and I have hoped in him: who subdueth my people under me.

2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight no man living shall be justified.

3Lord, what is man, that thou art made known to him? or the son of man, that thou makest account of him?

3 For the enemy persecuteth my soul: he hath crushed my life down to the earth; he hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.

4Man is like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow.

4 And my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

5Lord, bow down thy heavens and descend: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

5 I remember the days of old: I meditate on all thy doing; I muse on the work of thy hands.

6Send forth lightning, and thou shalt scatter them: shoot out thy arrows, and thou shalt trouble them.

6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul, as a parched land, [thirsteth] after thee. Selah.

7Put forth thy hand from on high, take me out, and deliver me from many waters: from the hand of strange children:

7 Answer me speedily, O Jehovah; my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, or I shall be like unto them that go down into the pit.

8Whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity.

8 Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, for in thee do I confide; make me to know the way wherein I should walk, for unto thee do I lift up my soul.

9To thee, O God, I will sing a new canticle: on the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises to thee.

9 Deliver me, O Jehovah, from mine enemies: unto thee do I flee for refuge.

10Who givest salvation to kings: who hast redeemed thy servant David from the malicious sword:

10 Teach me to do thy will; for thou art myGod: let thy good Spirit lead me in a plain country.

11Deliver me, And rescue me out of the hand of strange children; whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity:

11 Revive me, O Jehovah, for thy name's sake; in thy righteousness bring my soul out of trouble;

12Whose sons are as new plants in their youth: Their daughters decked out, adorned round about after the similitude of a temple:

12 And in thy loving-kindness cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that oppress my soul: for I am thy servant.

13Their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that. Their sheep fruitful in young, abounding in their goings forth:

13(not in this translation)

14Their oxen fat. There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor crying out in their streets.

14(not in this translation)

15They have called the people happy, that hath these things: but happy is that people whose God is the Lord.

15(not in this translation)