16. Serve the Lord willingly, and the Lord will accept you; your prayers will reach the skies.
17. The prayer of a humble person goes past the clouds and keeps on going until it reaches the Lord Most High, where it stays until he answers by seeing that justice is done and that the guilty are punished.
18. And the Lord will act quickly. He will show no patience with wicked people. He will take vengeance by crushing the heathen. He will completely wipe out the merciless and the arrogant, and will destroy the authority of the wicked.
19. He will give each of us what our thoughts and actions deserve. Because of the Lord's mercy, his people will be happy when he has judged their case.
20. In times of trouble his mercy is as welcome as rain after a long drought.