Psalms of Solomon 17

1 Lord, you yourself are our king forever and beyond, for our soul will boast in you, God.

2 What is the span of a human life on earth? A person’s hope in himself lasts only as long as his time.

3 But we hope in God, the one who rescues us. The power of our God lasts forever with mercy, and the kingdom of our God rules the nations forever with judgment.

4 You, Lord, chose David as king over Israel, and you swore to him concerning his descendants forever, that his kingdom would never fail before you.

5 Because of our sins, sinners rose against us. Those to whom you had made no promise attacked us and drove us out; they seized power by force and did not glorify your honored name.

6 In their arrogance they set up a royal house for their own glory, and with arrogant usurpation they left David’s throne desolate.

7 But you, God, will cast them down and remove their descendants from the earth when a man foreign to our race rises against them.

8 You will repay them according to their sins, God, so that the outcome they meet will match their deeds.

9 God had no mercy on them. He searched out their descendants and did not leave even one of them.

10 The Lord is faithful in all the judgments he carries out on the earth.

11 The lawless man emptied our land of its inhabitants; they wiped out young and old together with their children.

12 In the anger of his splendor he sent them away as far as the west. He made the rulers of the land an object of mockery and did not spare them.

13 As a foreigner, the enemy acted arrogantly, and his heart was alien to our God.

14 He did everything in Jerusalem just as the nations do in the cities where they are strong.

15 The children of the covenant among mixed nations ruled over them, but there was no one among them who practiced mercy and truth in Jerusalem.

16 Those who loved the gatherings of the holy ones fled from them; they flew from their homes like sparrows.

17 They wandered in wilderness places to save their lives from harm. Anyone who escaped them alive was precious in the eyes of those living in exile.

18 The lawless scattered them over the whole earth, because the heavens held back from dripping rain onto the earth.

19 Everlasting springs from the depths beneath the high mountains were restrained, because there was no one among them who practiced righteousness and judgment.

20 From their ruler down to the least of the people, all were in sin: the king in lawbreaking, the judge in disobedience, and the people in sin.

21 Look, Lord, and raise up for them their king, a son of David, at the time you chose, God, to reign over Israel, your servant.

22 Gird him with strength to shatter unrighteous rulers and cleanse Jerusalem from nations that trample it to destruction.

23 With righteous wisdom may he drive sinners out of the inheritance and crush the sinner’s pride like a potter’s vessels.

24 With an iron rod may he crush all their strength and destroy lawbreaking nations by the word of his mouth.

25 At his threat may nations flee from his presence, and may he convict sinners by the word of their own heart.

26 He will gather a holy people whom he will lead in righteousness, and he will judge the tribes of the people made holy by the Lord their God.

27 He will no longer allow wrongdoing to lodge among them, and no one who knows evil will live with them, for he will know that they are all children of their God.

28 He will divide them among their tribes on the land, and no immigrant or foreigner will live among them any longer.

29 He will judge peoples and nations with his righteous wisdom. Pause.

30 He will make peoples from the nations serve him under his yoke. He will glorify the Lord before all the earth and cleanse Jerusalem in holiness, as it was from the beginning.

31 Nations will come from the end of the earth to see his glory, bringing Jerusalem’s weakened sons as gifts, and to see the Lord’s glory with which God glorified her.

32 He will be a righteous king, taught by God, over them. There will be no wrongdoing among them in his days, for all will be holy, and their king will be the Lord’s anointed one.

33 He will not hope in horse, rider, or bow. He will not multiply gold or silver for war or gather hope from many [peoples] for a day of battle.

34 The Lord himself is his king, the hope of the one made strong by hope in God. He will have mercy on all the nations before him in reverence.

35 For he will strike the earth forever with the word of his mouth, and he will bless the Lord’s people with wisdom and gladness.

36 He himself will be pure from sin so that he may rule a great people, rebuke rulers, and remove sinners by the strength of his word.

37 He will not grow weak in his days, because he relies on his God. God made him strong in the Holy Spirit and wise in the counsel of understanding, with strength and righteousness.

38 The Lord’s blessing will be with him in strength, and he will not grow weak.

39 His hope rests on the Lord, and who can stand against him?

40 He will be strong in his works and mighty in reverence for God, shepherding the Lord’s flock in faithfulness and righteousness. He will not let any of them grow weak in their pasture.

41 He will lead them all in equality, and there will be no pride among them, so that no one may oppress another.

42 This is the majesty God knows for Israel’s king: to raise him over the house of Israel and discipline it.

43 His words are refined beyond the finest precious gold. In the assemblies he will distinguish the tribes of the people made holy; his words will be like the words of the holy ones among peoples made holy.

44 Blessed are those alive in those days who will see the good things God will do for Israel when the tribes are gathered.

45 May God hurry his mercy upon Israel; may he rescue us from the uncleanness of enemies who treat holy things as common.

46 The Lord himself is our king forever and beyond.