¹Wherefore is it that thou, O Lord,

dost stand from us afar?

And wherefore hidest thou thyself,

when times so troublous are?

²The wicked in his loftiness

doth persecute the poor:

In these devices they have fram’d

let them be taken sure.

³The wicked of his heart’s desire

doth talk with boasting great;

He blesseth him that’s covetous,

whom yet the Lord doth hate.

⁴The wicked, through his pride of face,

on God he doth not call;

And in the counsels of his heart

the Lord is not at all.

⁵His ways they always grievous are;

thy judgments from his sight

Removed are: at all his foes

he puffeth with despight.

⁶Within his heart he thus hath said,

I shall not moved be;

And no adversity at all

shall ever come to me.

⁷His mouth with cursing, fraud, deceit,

is fill’d abundantly;

And underneath his tongue there is

mischief and vanity.

⁸He closely sits in villages;

he slays the innocent:

Against the poor that pass him by

his cruel eyes are bent.

⁹He, lion-like, lurks in his den;

he waits the poor to take;

And when he draws him in his net,

his prey he doth him make.

¹⁰Himself he humbleth very low,

he croucheth down withal,

That so a multitude of poor

may by his strong ones fall.

¹¹He thus hath said within his heart,

The Lord hath quite forgot;

He hides his countenance, and he

for ever sees it not.

¹²O Lord, do thou arise; O God,

lift up thine hand on high:

Put not the meek afflicted ones

out of thy memory.

¹³Why is it that the wicked man

thus doth the Lord despise?

Because that God will it require

he in his heart denies.

¹⁴Thou hast it seen; for their mischief

and spite thou wilt repay:

The poor commits himself to thee;

thou art the orphan’s stay.

¹⁵The arm break of the wicked man,

and of the evil one;

Do thou seek out his wickedness,

until thou findest none.

¹⁶The Lord is King through ages all,

ev’n to eternity;

The heathen people from his land

are perish’d utterly.

¹⁷O Lord, of those that humble are

thou the desire didst hear;

Thou wilt prepare their heart, and thou

to hear wilt bend thine ear;

¹⁸To judge the fatherless, and those

that are oppressed sore;

That man, that is but sprung of earth,

may them oppress no more.