A Song of Salvation

1In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

2Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.

3You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you.

4Trust in the LORD forever: for in the LORD GOD is everlasting strength:

5For he brings down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he lays it low; he lays it low, even to the ground; he brings it even to the dust.

6The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

7The way of the just is uprightness: you, most upright, do smooth the path of the just.

8Yea, in the way of your judgments, O LORD, have we waited for you; the desire of our soul is to your name, and to the remembrance of you.

9With my soul have I desired you in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek you early: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

10Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

11LORD, when your hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy of the people; yea, the fire of your enemies shall devour them.

12LORD, you will ordain peace for us: for you also have done all our works in us.

13O LORD our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us: but by you only will we make mention of your name.

14They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

15You have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation: you are glorified: you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

16LORD, in trouble have they visited you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them.

17Like a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and cries out in her pangs; so have we been in your sight, O LORD.

18We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were given birth to wind; we have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

19Your dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust: for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

20Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation is past.

21For, behold, the LORD comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her bloodshed, and shall no more cover her slain.