For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

• ¹Blessed is he who considers the poor.
• Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.

• ²Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive.
• He shall be blessed on the earth,
• and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.

• ³Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed,
• and restore him from his bed of illness.

• ⁴I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me!
• Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

• ⁵My enemies speak evil against me:
• “When will he die, and his name perish?”

• ⁶If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood.
• His heart gathers iniquity to itself.
• When he goes abroad, he tells it.

• ⁷All who hate me whisper together against me.
• They imagine the worst for me.

• ⁸“An evil disease,” they say, “has afflicted him.
• Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”

• ⁹Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
• who ate bread with me,
• has lifted up his heel against me.

• ¹⁰But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up,
• that I may repay them.

• ¹¹By this I know that you delight in me,
• because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me.

• ¹²As for me, you uphold me in my integrity,
• and set me in your presence forever.

• ¹³Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,
• from everlasting and to everlasting!

• Amen and amen.

BOOK II