For the choir director; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David.

1Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be,
         For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

2They speak falsehood to one another;
         With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.

3May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
         The tongue that speaks great things;

4Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail;
         Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?”

5“Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,
         Now I will arise,” says the LORD; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.”

6The words of the LORD are pure words;
         As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.

7You, O LORD, will keep them;
         You will preserve him from this generation forever.

8The wicked strut about on every side
         When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

NASB ©1995