107.

(1) Praise God,264 for he is good, for his mercy endures for ever! (2) Let those who have been delivered by God say, whom he will deliver from the hand of the enemy (3) and gather from the countries, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea. 4 They wandered in the wilderness, on an uninhabited road, and found no inhabited city. (5) Hungry and thirsty, their souls are despondent. (6) But they cried out to God in their trouble, and he delivered them from their calamities. 7 He led them on a straight path to go to the inhabited city. (8) Let them praise God for his mercy, for his miracles to the sons of men. (9) For he has satisfied the thirsty soul, and filled the hungry soul with good. (10) Those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, bound with oppressive (fetters) and iron, (11) because they resisted the words of the Almighty, because they rejected the advice of the Most High, (12) He humbled their hearts with labor; They stumbled, and there is no one to help. (13) But they cried out to God in their distress, and he saved them from their calamities. (14) He brought them out of darkness, out of the shadow of death, and broke their bonds. (15) Let them praise God for his mercy, for his miracles to the sons of men. (16) For he has broken the bars of brass, and he has broken the bars of iron. (17) Those who are foolish suffer for the ways of their wickedness and for their sins[265]. (18) Their souls abhor all food, and they have reached the gates of death. (19) But they cried out to God in their distress, and he saved them from their calamities. (20) He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their graves. (21) Let them praise God for his mercy, for his miracles to the sons of men. (22) Let them offer him a sacrifice of thanksgiving, let them proclaim his deeds with song! (23) Those who go out to sea in ships and work in great waters (24) see God's creations, His miracles in the depths: (25) He spoke, and a stormy wind arose, lifting up its waves. (26) They ascended to the heavens, they descended to the abyss, their souls were shrinking in distress. (27) They whirled and staggered like drunken men, and all their wisdom vanished. (28) But they cried out to God in their troubles, and he brought them out of their troubles. (29) He stopped the storm, it subsided, and the waves calmed down. (30) They rejoiced that it had calmed down, that he had led them to the desired harbor. (31) Let them praise God for his mercy, for his miracles to the sons of men. (32) Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people, let them praise Him in the assembly of the elders! [266]. (33) He turns rivers into a desert, the springs of waters into a place without water, (34) fertile soil into salt marshes, because of the evil deeds of those who dwell on it. (35) He turns the desert into a lake of waters, and the parched earth into the fountains of waters. (36) He settles the starving there, they found a city to live in, (37) they sow fields, they plant vineyards, which bring them fruit and harvests. (38) He blesses them, they multiply greatly, and does not diminish their cattle[267]. (39) They were small and humiliated by oppression, misfortune and sorrow. (40) He pours out shame on the princes, leaving them to wander in hopeless confusion. (41) But He raises the poor out of poverty, and multiplies his generation like sheep. (42) The honest ones see this and rejoice, but every unrighteousness will shut their mouths. (43) Whoever is wise will keep this, and they will meditate on God's mercy.

108.

(1) The Song of David[268]. (2) My heart is ready, O Almighty, I will sing and play, and my glory is also ready. (3) Wake up, lyre and harp! I will wake up the morning dawn. (4) I will give thanks to Thee among the nations, O God, to sing among the nations, (5) for Thy mercy is higher than the heavens, Thy truth is to the heights of heaven. (6) Be exalted above the heavens, O Almighty, above all the earth, may Your glory be so! (7) In order that your beloved may be delivered, save me with your right hand and answer me. (8) The Almighty said in His holiness, [that] I will triumph, I will divide Shechem, I will measure the valley of Sukkot. (9) Gilad is mine, Menashe is mine, Ephraim is the fortress of my head, Judah is my lawgiver, (10) Moab is my washbasin, I will put my lock on Edom, I will blow the trumpet over the Pleshet. (11) Who will lead me into the fortified city? Who led me to Edom? (12) For it is you, the Almighty, who rejected us, and the Almighty did not come out at the head of our armies. (13) Give us help in trouble, for human protection is in vain. (14) With the Almighty we will create power, and He will trample down our enemies.

109.

(1) To the leader [of the musicians]. Song of David. The God of my praise, do not be silent! (2) For the mouth of the evildoer, the deceitful mouth has been opened against me, and they speak to me with the tongue of lies. 3 They have surrounded me with words of hatred, they are fighting against me for no reason. 4 For my love they hate me, but I pray. (5) They have repaid me with evil for good, and with hatred for my love. 6 Set the villain over him,271 and let the accuser stand at his right hand. (7) When he is judged, he will come out guilty, his prayer will miss. 8 His days will be short, and his appointment will go to another. (9) His children will become orphans, and his wife a widow. (10) His sons will wander about and inquire about their ruins. (11) The lender will seize all that he has, and strangers will plunder his labor. (12) There will be no one who is well pleased with him, there will be no one who has compassion for his fatherless. 13 His descendants will be doomed to perish, and their name will be blotted out in the next generation. (14) The sin of his fathers will be remembered before God, and the sin of his mother will not be blotted out. (15) They will always be before God, and he will destroy the memory of them from the earth. (16) Because he did not remember to show mercy, he persecuted a poor and needy man, broken in heart, in order to put him to death. (17) If he loves a curse, it will come upon him, if he does not desire a blessing, it will depart from him. (18) He has clothed himself with a curse like a garment, and it will enter into him like water, and like oil into his bones. (19) It will be to him like the garment in which he wraps himself, like the girdle with which he always girds himself. (20) Such is the recompense for the deeds of those who persecute me from God, and who speak evil against my soul. (21) But you, O God my Lord, do with me for your name's sake, for your mercy is good, deliver me. (22) For I am poor and needy, and my heart is killed within me. (23) I walk like a deviating shadow, I drive away like locusts. (24) My knees are weary from fasting, and my body has lost its fat. (25) I have become a laughing stock to them: when they see me, they nod their heads. (26) Help me, O God, my Almighty, save me according to your mercy, (27) so that they may know that it is your hand, that you, God, have done it. (28) They will curse, but you will bless, they will rise up, but they will be ashamed, and your servant will rejoice. (29) My persecutors will clothe themselves with disgrace as with clothing, and they will be covered with their shame. (30) And I will thank God with my mouth without limit, glorifying Him in the midst of many. (31) For he stands at the right hand of the beggar to save (him) from those who judge his soul.

110.

(1) The Song of David[272]. God said to my lord: "Sit on my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." (2) God will send the rod of your power from Zion: rule among your enemies. (3) Your people are volunteers. In the day of thy battle [they are ready] in the splendor of [thy] holiness from the coming out of [thy mother's] womb [274], like the dew of thy childhood. (4) God swore and would not think: "You are a priest forever according to the word of Malka-Tzedek" (275). (5) The Lord is at your right hand. In the day of His wrath He smites kings. (6) He executes judgment on the nations: [the earth] is full of corpses, he has broken his head over the great earth[276]. (7) He drinks from the stream on the way, therefore he lifts up his head" [277].

111.