¹Lord God Almighty, you are the God

who takes vengeance on your enemies.

It’s time for you to punish evil!

Let your rays of revelation-light shine from your people and

pierce the conscience of the wicked and punish them.

²It’s time to arise as judge of all the earth;

arise to punish the proud with the penalty they deserve!

³How much longer will you sit back and watch the wicked

triumph in their evil, boasting in all that is wrong?

^4-5Listen to them bragging among themselves,

big in their own eyes, all because of the crimes

they’ve committed against your people!

See how they’re crushing those who love you, God,

cruelly oppressing those who belong to you.

⁶Heartlessly they murder the widows, the foreigners,

and even the orphaned children.

⁷They say to themselves, “The Lord God doesn’t see this.

Their God, the God of Jacob, he doesn’t even care!”

⁸But you’d better watch out, you stupid fools!

You’d better wise up! Why would you act like God doesn’t exist?

Do you really think that God can’t hear their cries?

⁹God isn’t hard of hearing; he’ll hear all their cries.

God isn’t blind. He who made the eye has superb vision,

and he’s watching all you do.

¹⁰Won’t the God who knows all things know what you’ve done?

The God who punishes nations will surely punish you!

¹¹The Lord has fully examined every thought of man

and found them all to be empty and futile.

¹²Lord Yah, there’s such a blessing that comes

when you teach us your Word and your ways.

Even the sting of your correction can be sweet.

¹³It rescues us from our days of trouble

until you are ready to punish the wicked.

¹⁴For the Lord will never walk away from his cherished ones,

nor would he forsake his chosen ones who belong to him.

¹⁵Whenever you pronounce judgments, they reveal righteousness.[#94:15 Or “justice will prevail.”]

All your devoted lovers will be pleased.

¹⁶Lord, who will protect me from these wicked ones?

If you don’t stand to defend me, who will? I have no one but you!

¹⁷I would have been killed so many times

if you had not been there for me.

¹⁸When I screamed out, “Lord, I’m doomed!”

your fiery love was stirred, and you raced to my rescue.

¹⁹Whenever my busy thoughts were out of control,

the soothing comfort of your presence

calmed me down and overwhelmed me with delight.

²⁰It’s obvious to all; you will have nothing to do

with corrupt rulers who pass laws that empower evil

and defeat what is right.

²¹For they gang up against the lovers of righteousness

and condemn the innocent to death.

^22-23But I know that all their evil plans will boomerang back onto them.

Every plot they hatch will simply seal their own doom.

For you, my God, you will destroy them,

giving them what they deserve.

For you are my true tower of strength,

my safe place, my hideout, and my true shelter.