Psalm - The Old Testament

¹ [For the choirmaster Tune: 'Lilies . . .' Of David] Save me, God, for the waters have closed in on my very being.

² I am sinking in the deepest swamp and there is no firm ground. I have stepped into deep water and the waves are washing over me.

³ I am exhausted with calling out, my throat is hoarse, my eyes are worn out with searching for my God.

⁴ More numerous than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without reason. Those who seek to get rid of me are powerful, my treacherous enemies. (Must I give back what I have never stolen?)

⁵ God, you know how foolish I am, my offences are not hidden from you.

⁶ Those who hope in you must not be made fools of, Yahweh Sabaoth, because of me! Those who seek you must not be disgraced, God of Israel, because of me!

⁷ It is for you I bear insults, my face is covered with shame,

⁸ I am estranged from my brothers, alienated from my own mother's sons;

⁹ for I am eaten up with zeal for your house, and insults directed against you fall on me.

¹⁰ I mortify myself with fasting, and find myself insulted for it,

¹¹ I dress myself in sackcloth and become their laughing-stock,

¹² the gossip of people sitting at the gate, and the theme of drunkards' songs.

¹³ And so, I pray to you, Yahweh, at the time of your favour; in your faithful love answer me, in the constancy of your saving power.

¹⁴ Rescue me from the mire before I sink in; so I shall be saved from those who hate me, from the watery depths.

¹⁵ Let not the waves wash over me, nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit close its mouth on me.

¹⁶ Answer me, Yahweh, for your faithful love is generous; in your tenderness turn towards me;

¹⁷ do not turn away from your servant, be quick to answer me, for I am in trouble.

¹⁸ Come to my side, redeem me, ransom me because of my enemies.

¹⁹ You know well the insults, the shame and disgrace I endure. Every one of my oppressors is known to you.

²⁰ Insult has broken my heart past cure. I hoped for sympathy, but in vain, for consolers -- not one to be found.

²¹ To eat they gave me poison, to drink, vinegar when I was thirsty.

²² May their own table prove a trap for them, and their abundance a snare;

²³ may their eyes grow so dim that they cannot see, all their muscles lose their strength.

²⁴ Vent your fury on them, let your burning anger overtake them.

²⁵ Reduce their encampment to ruin, and leave their tents untenanted,

²⁶ for hounding someone you had already stricken, for redoubling the pain of one you had wounded.

²⁷ Charge them with crime after crime, exclude them from your saving justice,

²⁸ erase them from the book of life, do not enrol them among the upright.

²⁹ For myself, wounded wretch that I am, by your saving power raise me up!

³⁰ I will praise God's name in song, I will extol him by thanksgiving,

³¹ for this will please Yahweh more than an ox, than a bullock horned and hoofed.

³² The humble have seen and are glad. Let your courage revive, you who seek God.

³³ For God listens to the poor, he has never scorned his captive people.

³⁴ Let heaven and earth and seas, and all that stirs in them, acclaim him!

³⁵ For God will save Zion, and rebuild the cities of Judah, and people will live there on their own land;

³⁶ the descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.