Meet Haley Whitfield

God Himself Is Judge

A Psalm of Asaph.

1  The Mighty One, God the LORD,
    speaks and summons the earth
    from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2  Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
    God shines forth.

3  Our God comes; he does not keep silence; ^{1 50:3 Or May our God come, and not keep silence}
    before him is a devouring fire,
    around him a mighty tempest.
4  He calls to the heavens above
    and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5  “Gather to me my faithful ones,
    who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
6  The heavens declare his righteousness,
    for God himself is judge! Selah

7  “Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
    O Israel, I will testify against you.
    I am God, your God.
8  Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
    your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9  I will not accept a bull from your house
    or goats from your folds.
10  For every beast of the forest is mine,
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
11  I know all the birds of the hills,
    and all that moves in the field is mine.

12  If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    for the world and its fullness are mine.
13  Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
14  Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, ^{2 50:14 Or Make thanksgiving your sacrifice to God}
    and perform your vows to the Most High,
15  and call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

16  But to the wicked God says:
    “What right have you to recite my statutes
    or take my covenant on your lips?
17  For you hate discipline,
    and you cast my words behind you.
18  If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
    and you keep company with adulterers.

19  You give your mouth free rein for evil,
    and your tongue frames deceit.
20  You sit and speak against your brother;
    you slander your own mother's son.
21  These things you have done, and I have been silent;
    you thought that I ^{3 50:21 Or that the I am} was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

22  Mark this, then, you who forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
23  The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who orders his way rightly
    I will show the salvation of God!”

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

1  Have mercy on me, ^{4 51:1 Or Be gracious to me} O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
2  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!

3  For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
4  Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.
5  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6  Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
    and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

7  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8  Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9  Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
10  Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right ^{5 51:10 Or steadfast} spirit within me.
11  Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12  Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

13  Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    and sinners will return to you.
14  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
    O God of my salvation,
    and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15  O Lord, open my lips,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
16  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

18  Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
    build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19  then will you delight in right sacrifices,
    in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

The Steadfast Love of God Endures

To the choirmaster. A Maskil ^{6 52:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term} of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”

1  Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
    The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
2  Your tongue plots destruction,
    like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
3  You love evil more than good,
    and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
4  You love all words that devour,
    O deceitful tongue.

5  But God will break you down forever;
    he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
    he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6  The righteous shall see and fear,
    and shall laugh at him, saying,
7  “See the man who would not make
    God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches
    and sought refuge in his own destruction!” ^{7 52:7 Or in his work of destruction}

8  But I am like a green olive tree
    in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
    forever and ever.
9  I will thank you forever,
    because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
    in the presence of the godly.

There Is None Who Does Good

To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil ^{8 53:1 Probably musical or liturgical terms} of David.

1  The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
    there is none who does good.

2  God looks down from heaven
    on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand, ^{9 53:2 Or who act wisely}
    who seek after God.

3  They have all fallen away;
    together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
    not even one.

4  Have those who work evil no knowledge,
    who eat up my people as they eat bread,
    and do not call upon God?

5  There they are, in great terror,
    where there is no terror!
For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;
    you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

6  Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
    When God restores the fortunes of his people,
    let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

The Lord Upholds My Life

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil ^{10 54:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term} of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “Is not David hiding among us?”

1  O God, save me by your name,
    and vindicate me by your might.
2  O God, hear my prayer;
    give ear to the words of my mouth.

3  For strangers ^{11 54:3 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Targum insolent men (compare Psalm 86:14)} have risen against me;
    ruthless men seek my life;
    they do not set God before themselves. Selah

4  Behold, God is my helper;
    the Lord is the upholder of my life.
5  He will return the evil to my enemies;
    in your faithfulness put an end to them.

6  With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
    I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.
7  For he has delivered me from every trouble,
    and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

Cast Your Burden on the LORD

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil ^{12 55:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term} of David.

1  Give ear to my prayer, O God,
    and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2  Attend to me, and answer me;
    I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
3  because of the noise of the enemy,
    because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they drop trouble upon me,
    and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

4  My heart is in anguish within me;
    the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5  Fear and trembling come upon me,
    and horror overwhelms me.
6  And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest;
7  yes, I would wander far away;
    I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8  I would hurry to find a shelter
    from the raging wind and tempest.”

9  Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
    for I see violence and strife in the city.
10  Day and night they go around it
    on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11      ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
    do not depart from its marketplace.

12  For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
    then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—
    then I could hide from him.
13  But it is you, a man, my equal,
    my companion, my familiar friend.
14  We used to take sweet counsel together;
    within God's house we walked in the throng.
15  Let death steal over them;
    let them go down to Sheol alive;
    for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.

16  But I call to God,
    and the LORD will save me.
17  Evening and morning and at noon
    I utter my complaint and moan,
    and he hears my voice.
18  He redeems my soul in safety
    from the battle that I wage,
    for many are arrayed against me.
19  God will give ear and humble them,
    he who is enthroned from of old, Selah
because they do not change
    and do not fear God.

20  My companion ^{13 55:20 Hebrew He} stretched out his hand against his friends;
    he violated his covenant.
21  His speech was smooth as butter,
    yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
    yet they were drawn swords.

22  Cast your burden on the LORD,
    and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
    the righteous to be moved.

23  But you, O God, will cast them down
    into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
    shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.

In God I Trust

To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A Miktam ^{14 56:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term} of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.

1  Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me;
    all day long an attacker oppresses me;
2  my enemies trample on me all day long,
    for many attack me proudly.
3  When I am afraid,
    I put my trust in you.
4  In God, whose word I praise,
    in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
    What can flesh do to me?

5  All day long they injure my cause; ^{15 56:5 Or they twist my words}
    all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6  They stir up strife, they lurk;
    they watch my steps,
    as they have waited for my life.
7  For their crime will they escape?
    In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!

8  You have kept count of my tossings; ^{16 56:8 Or wanderings}
    put my tears in your bottle.
    Are they not in your book?
9  Then my enemies will turn back
    in the day when I call.
    This I know, that ^{17 56:9 Or because} God is for me.
10  In God, whose word I praise,
    in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11  in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
    What can man do to me?

12  I must perform my vows to you, O God;
    I will render thank offerings to you.
13  For you have delivered my soul from death,
    yes, my feet from falling,
that I may walk before God
    in the light of life.