The Pure Words of the Lord

1 For the music director, on the eight-string lyre, a psalm of David.

2 Help, ADONAI! For no one godly exists. For the faithful have vanished from the children of men.

3 Everyone tells a lie to his neighbor, talking with flattering lips and a divided heart.

4 May ADONAI cut off all flattering lips — a tongue bragging big things.

5 They say: “With our tongue we’ll prevail. We own our lips — who can master us?”

6 “Because of the oppression of the poor, because of the groaning of the needy, now will I arise,” says ADONAI. “I will put him in the safe place — he pants for it.”

7 The words of ADONAI are pure words — like silver refined in an earthly crucible, purified seven times.

8 You will keep us safe, ADONAI. You will protect us from this generation forever.

9 The wicked strut all around, while vileness is exalted by mankind.