1Blessed be the Lord my God, who instructs my hands for battle, and my fingers for war.

2My mercy, and my refuge; my helper, and my deliverer; my protector, in whom I have trusted; who subdues my people under me.

3Lord, what is man, that you are made known to him? or the son of man, that you take account of him?

4Man is like to vanity: his days pass as a shadow.

5O Lord, bow your heavens, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

6Send lightning, and you shall scatter them: send forth your arrows, and you shall discomfit them.

7Send forth your hand from on high; rescue me, and deliver me out of great ²⁵⁷waters, out of the hand of strange children;

8whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity.

9O God, I will sing a new song to you: I will play to you on a lute of ten strings.

10Even to him who gives ²⁵⁸salvation to kings: who redeems his servant David from the hurtful sword.

11Deliver me, and rescue me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity;

12whose children are as plants, strengthened in their youth: their daughters are beautiful, sumptuously adorned after the similitude of a temple.

13Their garners are full, and bursting with one kind of store after another; their sheep are prolific, multiplying in their streets.

14Their oxen are fat: there is no falling down of a hedge, nor going out, nor cry in their ²⁵⁹folds.

15Men bless the people to whom this lot belongs, but blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.