If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
A Song of Ascents. Of David. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side— let Israel now say— if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us,
O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol.
I was pushed hard, so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me.
At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth.
The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence.
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul. I cry to you, O Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”
A Song of Ascents. Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.