Psalms Chapter 88
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Misericordias Domini.
The perpetuity of the church of Christ, in consequence of the promise of God: which, notwithstanding, God permits her to suffer sometimes most grievous afflictions.
88:1. Of understanding, for Ethan the Ezrahite.
88:2. The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever. I will shew forth thy truth with my mouth to generation and generation.
88:3. For thou hast said: Mercy shall be built up for ever in the heavens: thy truth shall be prepared in them.
88:4. I have made a covenant with my elect: I have sworn to David my servant:
88:5. Thy seed will I settle for ever. And I will build up thy throne unto generation and generation.
88:6. The heavens shall confess thy wonders, O Lord: and thy truth in the church of the saints.
88:7. For who in the clouds can be compared to the Lord: or who among the sons of God shall be like to God?
88:8. God, who is glorified in the assembly of the saints: great and terrible above all them that are about him.
88:9. O Lord God of hosts, who is like to thee? thou art mighty, O Lord, and thy truth is round about thee.
88:10. Thou rulest the power of the sea: and appeasest the motion of the waves thereof.
88:11. Thou hast humbled the proud one, as one that is slain: with the arm of thy strength thou hast scattered thy enemies.
88:12. Thine are the heavens, and thine is the earth: the world and the fulness thereof thou hast founded:
88:13. The north and the sea thou hast created. Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name:
88:14. Thy arm is with might. Let thy hand be strengthened, and thy right hand exalted:
88:15. Justice and judgment are the preparation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before thy face:
88:16. Blessed is the people that knoweth jubilation. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance:
88:17. And in thy name they shall rejoice all the day, and in thy justice they shall be exalted.
88:18. For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy good pleasure shall our horn be exalted.
88:19. For our protection is of the Lord, and of our king the holy one of Israel.
88:20. Then thou spokest in a vision to thy saints, and saidst: I have laid help upon one that is mighty, and have exalted one chosen out of my people.
88:21. I have found David my servant: with my holy oil I have anointed him.
88:22. For my hand shall help him: and my arm shall strengthen him.
88:23. The enemy shall have no advantage over him: nor the son of iniquity have power to hurt him.
88:24. And I will cut down his enemies before his face; and them that hate him I will put to flight.
88:25. And my truth and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
88:26. And I will set his hand in the sea; and his right hand in the rivers.
88:27. He shall cry out to me: Thou art my father: my God, and the support of my salvation.
88:28. And I will make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the earth.
88:29. I will keep my mercy for him for ever: and my covenant faithful to him.
88:30. And I will make his seed to endure for evermore: and his throne as the days of heaven.
88:31. And if his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments:
88:32. If they profane my justices: and keep not my commandments:
88:33. I will visit their iniquities with a rod and their sins with stripes.
88:34. But my mercy I will not take away from him: nor will I suffer my truth to fail.
88:35. Neither will I profane my covenant: and the words that proceed from my mouth I will not make void.
88:36. Once have I sworn by my holiness: I will not lie unto David:
88:37. His seed shall endure for ever.
88:38. And his throne as the sun before me: and as the moon perfect for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven.