69
An Urgent Plea for Help in Trouble
To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A Psalm of David.
1Save me, O God!
For ⚓the waters have come up to my neck.
2⚓I sink in deep mire,
Where there is no standing;
I have come into deep waters,
Where the floods overflow me.
3⚓I am weary with my crying;
My throat is dry;
⚓My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4Those who ⚓hate me without a cause
Are more than the hairs of my head;
They are mighty who would destroy me,
Being my enemies wrongfully;
Though I have stolen nothing,
I still must restore it.
5O God, You know my foolishness;
And my sins are not hidden from You.
6Let not those who wait for You, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me;
Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
7Because for Your sake I have borne reproach;
Shame has covered my face.
8⚓I have become a stranger to my brothers,
And an alien to my mother’s children;
9⚓Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up,
⚓And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
10When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting,
That became my reproach.
11I also made sackcloth my garment;
I became a byword to them.
12Those who sit in the gate speak against me,
And I am the song of the ⚓drunkards.
13But as for me, my prayer is to You,
O Lord, in the acceptable time;
O God, in the multitude of Your mercy,
Hear me in the truth of Your salvation.
14Deliver me out of the mire,
And let me not sink;
Let me be delivered from those who hate me,
And out of the deep waters.
15Let not the floodwater overflow me,
Nor let the deep swallow me up;
And let not the pit shut its mouth on me.
16Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good;
Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies.
17And do not hide Your face from Your servant,
For I am in trouble;
Hear me speedily.
18Draw near to my soul, and redeem it;
Deliver me because of my enemies.
19You know ⚓my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor;
My adversaries are all before You.
20Reproach has broken my heart,
And I am full of heaviness;
⚓I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none;
And for ⚓comforters, but I found none.
21They also gave me gall for my food,
⚓And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22⚓Let their table become a snare before them,
And their well-being a trap.
23⚓Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see;
And make their loins shake continually.
24⚓Pour out Your indignation upon them,
And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them.
25⚓Let their dwelling place be desolate;
Let no one live in their tents.
26For they persecute the ones⚓You have struck,
And talk of the grief of those You have wounded.
27⚓Add iniquity to their iniquity,
⚓And let them not come into Your righteousness.
28Let them ⚓be blotted out of the book of the living,
⚓And not be written with the righteous.
29But I am poor and sorrowful;
Let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30⚓I will praise the name of God with a song,
And will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
31⚓This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull,
Which has horns and hooves.
32⚓The humble shall see this and be glad;
And you who seek God, ⚓your hearts shall live.
33For the Lord hears the poor,
And does not despise ⚓His prisoners.
34⚓Let heaven and earth praise Him,
The seas ⚓and everything that moves in them.
35⚓For God will save Zion
And build the cities of Judah,
That they may dwell there and possess it.
36Also, ⚓the descendants of His servants shall inherit it,
And those who love His name shall dwell in it.