Fear: It’s Risky Business

⁹ The LORD is a safe place for the oppressed a safe place in difficult times. ¹⁰ Those who know your name trust you because you have not abandoned any who seek you, LORD. ¹¹ Sing praises to the LORD, who lives in Zion! Proclaim his mighty acts among all people! ¹² Because the one who avenges bloodshed remembers those who suffer; the LORD hasn’t forgotten their cries for help. ¹³ Have mercy on me, LORD! Just look how I suffer because of those who hate me. But you are the one who brings me back from the very gates of death ¹⁴ so I can declare all your praises, so I can rejoice in your salvation in the gates of Daughter Zion. ¹⁵ The nations have fallen into the hole they themselves made! Their feet are caught in the very net they themselves hid! ¹⁶ The LORD is famous for the justice he has done; it’s his own doing that the wicked are trapped. Higgayon. Selah ¹⁷ Let the wicked go straight to the grave, the same for every nation that forgets God. ¹⁸ Because the poor won’t be forgotten forever, the hope of those who suffer won’t be lost for all time. ¹⁹ Get up, LORD! Don’t let people prevail! Let the nations be judged before you. ²⁰ Strike them with fear, LORD. Let the nations know they are only human. Selah