The Psalms of Ascents—Complete

"Snatch me from danger again, Lord. My days brim with lies and the words from lying lips burst around me."

Psalm 120

When trouble fell on me I looked to the Lord.
I called out to him and he answered me
As he has always done.
Snatch me from danger again, Lord.
My days brim with lies and the words
From lying lips burst around me.
Lord, give the wicked gifts as sharp as arrows.
Touch their tongues 
With your holy coals.
I have made my home in the midst
Of strangers who do not love you,
Who throng with trouble,
And do me wrong.
I am for peace
But when I open my mouth,
They are ready for war.

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the mountains and ask,
”From where does my help come?”
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made the heavens and the earth.

He will not let your wavering stride slip.
He who watches your step does not sleep.
The one who guards Israel
Grows neither faint nor weary.

The Lord is your keeper;
He is the shade at your right hand.
The sun will not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

The Lord is your watch and ward from evil;
He will guard your life.
The Lord will keep your going out
And your return
From this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 122

My heart filled with hope when the time came
To go again to the house of the Lord.
Now our feet have taken us 
To the very gates of Jerusalem.
Holy Jerusalem, built to bind the tribes together
So that we can be joined here
To give thanks to the Lord.
This is the city of the king
And here is the throne 
Of the house of David.

We will pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
May you draw together all who love the Lord;
May your gates be open forever
Because only peace is within your walls;
May we drink from the river
That flows from the throne and live;
May all brothers and friends live at peace;
And dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 123

I raise my eyes and see you, Lord,
Who dwells in the heavens and who is also here.
As the eyes of servants follow
The hands of their masters,
And the maid the movements of her mistress,
So these eyes watch for you
Until your mercy visits us.
Give me grace after grace, Lord,
For these hands have held their portion
Of scorn and more. I know the cold
Contempt of those at ease
And the easy way the proud
Deride the ones who wait for you.

Psalm 124

Let all God’s people say:
If the Lord had not been with us
When our enemies rose against us
Like creatures of a chaotic sea,
They would have swallowed us alive.
When their anger burned and broke over us,
We would have been swept out to sea
And taken down into the abyss.

But because of the Lord,
We were not given to the dragons of the deep.
We slipped the snare like a bird rising
Into the heights above their snapping teeth
And raging waters. 
Our help is the Lord himself,
Who made the heavens and the earth.

Psalm 125

Those who trust and wait for the Lord
Are like Mount Zion—unshaken,
Unswerving, unbreached, eternal.
As Jerusalem is ringed with hills,
So the Lord surrounds and bounds his people.
The scepter of evil will not hold sway
In the portion of the righteous,
Nor will God’s people reach out
And take it to do wrong.

Lord, do good to the good.
Be generous to those who give themselves away.
Lead through level land
We who want to follow you.
But to those who reach to reign,
Who take what they want to take,
Draw them away. Send them astray.
Make crooked their crooked path.
And leave peace in its place here.

Psalm 126

When the Lord rescued us from captivity
We were like those who dream with eyes open.
He filled our mouths with laughter
And we sang songs of joy 
That we thought we would not sing again.
Everyone who heard our story said,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
And he has, greater than we had
The strength to hope for.
Even now gladness gathers
And wells and is not swept away.

After so long God has restored our fortunes.
He sent his goodness rushing toward us
Like a desert stream dry until
It rises like a torrent when the rain comes.
Those who sow in tears
Will reap with shouts of joy.
Those who leave carrying their grief aloft
Like a bag of dark seeds,
Will return with arms filled 
With a greater harvest 
Than dream guessed, heart hoped for,
Or hands could hold.

Psalm 127

Unless the Lord builds a house,
The builders toil in vain.
Unless the Lord guards a city,
The watch achieves nothing.
For nothing you rise early
And sit up late into the night
To chase the bread of toil.
But the Lord gives his beloved sleep.

Children are a portion from the Lord.
Like the fruit of the vine
Or arrows ready to hand,
A child is always a blessing.
So do justice and grow in grace.
Open your arms to your enemies.
Do not be ashamed. Give at the gates.

Psalm 128

Blessed are you who fear the Lord
And walk with him.
When you eat the fruit
Of the work of your hands,
It will go well with you.
Your wife will be a fruitful vine,
Abiding in the center of your home,
And your children like olive shoots
Around your table.

But walk with the Lord
And you will know the beauty
God gave creation and will
Pass your days in goodness 
among your children’s children.

Psalm 129

They have hurt me so many times.
They have harried and vexed 
And tested and maddened me—
Even from my youth.
But they have not prevailed against me.
They rent lines on my back like I was a field.
Tbey stretched out their furrows
And sowed fireseed that does not blossom
But fruits malevolently where it lies.
But the Lord 
Is righteous. The Lord is good.
The Lord has cut the whips of the wicked.

May all those who hate God’s people
And God’s places be thrown back
And hang their heads.
May they be like grass that withers
Before it roots and spreads,
Before a harvest of strife
Is reaped from it.
But may the blessing of the Lord 
Rest on we who walk with him
And may it keep us from wrong.

Psalm 130

Out of the depths, I cry to you, Lord.
God, hear my voice.
I need you to attend
To my pleas for mercy.

If you kept our crooked loves always before you,
Who could endure it?
But with you is forgiveness
So that we can know the fear
That brings peace and consolation.

I wait for the Lord with my whole life
And in his word, I hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
More than watchmen wait for the morning,
More than watchmen wait for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord,
For with him there is unearned love and kindness
And a vast redemption.
He will lead you back
Until your love is healed and whole.

Psalm 131

O Lord, my heart is poor and lowly.
I am like the meek and the mourning.
I do not chase the things that surpass me.
I have calmed and quieted my soul.
Like a weaned child with its mother;
Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O people of God, wait on the Lord
From now to forevermore.

Psalm 132

Remember David’s afflictions.
He bowed down and swore
He would not enter his house,
Nor lie on his bed, nor sleep
Until he found a place 
For the Lord to dwell.

We heard of it in Bethlehem
And found it in Jaar.
Come, let us bow down
Before the ark, the Lord’s footstool.
Rise and find your resting place here, Lord,
The place of your mighty ark.
Your priests make righteousness
Their garment and those who believe
In you sing for joy.

Remember your servant David
And turn your face toward your anointed.
You swore to him that you would
Set upon the throne one of his line.
And if the sons of David kept 
Your laws and your covenant,
They would sit on the throne forever.

The Lord has chosen Zion
As his longed-for dwelling place, saying
“This is my resting place forever.
I will make this city my home.
Her streets will flow with water,
And I will satisfy her needy with bread.
The rescued will come to live there
And they will be true priests,
Clothed not in robes and jewels
But in righteousness.
Those who hold their hope aloft 
Will dance and sing for joy.
And a David’s king will rise there.
His presence will be a light.
His enemies will hang their heads
But he will wear a wooden crown
High on his head and it will gleam
And shine and bloom.

Psalm 133

Look at the goodness that rains on us
When brothers and friends
Dwell together in peace.
It is a consecration, an anointing,
A gift that ran down more 
Abundantly than we could have asked
Or hoped or guessed.
It is like a river running
From the green heights of mount Hermon
Coursing to Zion, those rival peaks
Becoming partners in peace forever.

Psalm 134

Praise the Lord, all you his servants,
Who serve by night in his house.
Turn to his holy place 
And hold yourselves still 
In wonder before him.
May his glory go out from Zion,
Who made the heavens and the earth.

---

Psalms: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 46, 50, 51, 53, 54, 62, 63, 65, 66, 73, 74, 75, 84, 86, 88, 90, 91, 100, 107, 110, 114, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 137, 139, 140, 142, 147, 148.

Request the Darkling Psalter in Print

If you would like to move this project one step closer to publication, sign up on this form to request the Darkling Psalter in print.