Sabbato Sancto

And according to the multitude of thy tender mercies * blot out my iniquity.

Wash me yet more from my iniquity, * and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my iniquity, * and my sin is always before me.

To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: * that thou mayst be justified in thy words, and mayst overcome when thou art judged.

For behold I was conceived in iniquities; * and in sins did my mother conceive me.

For behold thou hast loved truth: * the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me.

Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: * thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.

To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness: * and the bones that have been humbled shall rejoice.

Turn away thy face from my sins, * and blot out all my iniquities.

Create a clean heart in me, O God: * and renew a right spirit within my bowels.

Cast me not away from thy face; * and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, * and strengthen me with a perfect spirit.

I will teach the unjust thy ways: * and the wicked shall be converted to thee.

Deliver me from blood, O God, thou God of my salvation: * and my tongue shall extol thy justice.

O Lord, thou wilt open my lips: * and my mouth shall declare thy praise.

For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would indeed have given it: * with burnt offerings thou wilt not be delighted.

A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit: * a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Deal favourably, O Lord, in thy good will with Sion; * that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up.

Then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice, oblations and whole burnt offerings: * then shall they lay calves upon thy altar.

To shew forth thy mercy in the morning, * and thy truth in the night:

Upon an instrument of ten strings, upon the psaltery: * with a canticle upon the harp.

For thou hast given me, O Lord, a delight in thy doings: * and in the works of thy hands I shall rejoice.

O Lord, how great are thy works! * thy thoughts are exceeding deep.

The senseless man shall not know: * nor will the fool understand these things.

When the wicked shall spring up as grass: * and all the workers of iniquity shall appear:

That they may perish for ever and ever: * but thou, O Lord, art most high for evermore.

For behold thy enemies, O Lord, for behold thy enemies shall perish: * and all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

But my horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn: * and my old age in plentiful mercy.

My eye also hath looked down upon my enemies: * and my ear shall hear of the downfall of the malignant that rise up against me.

The just shall flourish like the palm tree: * he shall grow up like the cedar of Libanus.

They that are planted in the house of the Lord * shall flourish in the courts of the house of our God.

They shall still increase in a fruitful old age: * and shall be well treated, that they may shew,

That the Lord our God is righteous, * and there is no iniquity in him.

Thou hast protected me from the assembly of the malignant; * from the multitude of the workers of iniquity.

For they have whetted their tongues like a sword; * they have bent their bow a bitter thing, to shoot in secret the undefiled.

They will shoot at him on a sudden, and will not fear: * they are resolute in wickedness.

They have talked of hiding snares; * they have said: Who shall see them?

They have searched after iniquities: * they have failed in their search.

Man shall come to a deep heart: * and God shall be exalted.

The arrows of children are their wounds: * and their tongues against them are made weak.

All that saw them were troubled; * and every man was afraid.

And they declared the works of God: * and understood his doings.

The just shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall hope in him: * and all the upright in heart shall be praised.

I sought for the residue of my years. * I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living.

I shall behold man no more, * nor the inhabitant of rest.

My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, * as a shepherd’s tent.

My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he cut me off: * from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.

I hoped till morning, * as a lion so hath he broken all my bones:

From morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me. * I will cry like a young swallow, I will meditate like a dove:

My eyes are weakened * looking upward:

Lord, I suffer violence, answer thou for me. * What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me, whereas he himself hath done it?

I will recount to thee all my years * in the bitterness of my soul.

O Lord, if man’s life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live. * Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter:

But thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, * thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: * nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth.

The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: * the father shall make thy truth known to the children.

O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life * in the house of the Lord.

Praise ye him for his mighty acts: * praise ye him according to the multitude of his greatness.

Praise him with sound of trumpet: * praise him with psaltery and harp.

Praise him with timbrel and choir: * praise him with strings and organs.

Praise him on high sounding cymbals: praise him on cymbals of joy: * let every spirit praise the Lord.

And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, * in the house of David his servant:

As he spoke by the mouth of his holy Prophets, * who are from the beginning:

Salvation from our enemies, * and from the hand of all that hate us:

To perform mercy to our fathers, * and to remember his holy testament,

The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, * that he would grant to us,

That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, * we may serve him without fear,

In holiness and justice before him, * all our days.

And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: * for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways:

To give knowledge of salvation to his people, * unto the remission of their sins:

Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, * in which the Orient from on high hath visited us:

To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: * to direct our feet into the way of peace.