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