A Prayer for Help
1 Why are you far away, Lord?
Why do you hide yourself
when I am in trouble?
2 Proud and brutal people
hunt down the poor.
But let them get caught
by their own evil plans!
3 The wicked brag about
their deepest desires.
Those greedy people hate
and curse you, Lord.
4 The wicked are too proud
to turn to you
or even think about you.
5 They are always successful,
though they can't understand
your teachings,
and they keep sneering
at their enemies.
6 In their hearts they say,
“Nothing can hurt us!
We'll always be happy
and free from trouble.”
7 They curse and tell lies,
and all they talk about
is how to be cruel
or how to do wrong.
8 They hide outside villages,
waiting to strike and murder
some innocent victim.
9 They are hungry lions
hiding in the bushes,
hoping to catch
some helpless passerby.
They trap the poor in nets
and drag them away.
10 They crouch down and wait
to grab a victim.
11 They say, “God can't see!
He's got on a blindfold.”
12 Do something, Lord God,
and use your powerful arm
to help those in need.
13 The wicked don't respect you.
In their hearts they say,
“God won't punish us!”
14 But you see the trouble
and the distress,
and you will do something.
The poor can count on you,
and so can orphans.
15 Now break the power
of all merciless people.
Punish them for doing wrong
and make them stop.
16 Our Lord, you will always rule,
but every godless nation
will vanish from the earth.
17 You listen to the longings
of those who suffer.
You offer them hope,
and you pay attention
to their cries for help.
18 You defend orphans
and everyone else in need,
so that no one on earth
can terrify others again.
1 Why standest thou farre off, O Lord, and hidest thee in due time, euen in affliction? 2 The wicked with pride doeth persecute the poore: let them be taken in the craftes that they haue imagined. 3 For the wicked hath made boast of his owne heartes desire, and the couetous blesseth himselfe: he contemneth the Lord. 4 The wicked is so proude that hee seeketh not for God: hee thinketh alwayes, There is no God. 5 His wayes alway prosper: thy iudgements are hie aboue his sight: therefore defieth he all his enemies. 6 He saith in his heart, I shall neuer be moued, nor be in danger. 7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceite and fraude: vnder his tongue is mischiefe and iniquitie. 8 He lieth in waite in the villages: in the secret places doeth hee murder the innocent: his eyes are bent against the poore. 9 He lyeth in waite secretly, euen as a lyon in his denne: he lyeth in waite to spoyle the poore: he doeth spoyle the poore, when he draweth him into his net. 10 He croucheth and boweth: therefore heaps of the poore doe fall by his might. 11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hideth away his face, and will neuer see. 12 Arise, O Lord God: lift vp thine hande: forget not the poore. 13 Wherefore doeth the wicked contemne God? he saith in his heart, Thou wilt not regard. 14 Yet thou hast seene it: for thou beholdest mischiefe and wrong, that thou mayest take it into thine handes: the poore committeth himselfe vnto thee: for thou art the helper of the fatherlesse. 15 Breake thou the arme of the wicked and malicious: searche his wickednes, and thou shalt finde none. 16 The Lord is King for euer and euer: the heathen are destroyed foorth of his land. 17 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the poore: thou preparest their heart: thou bendest thine eare to them, 18 To iudge the fatherlesse and poore, that earthly man cause to feare no more.