Psalms 69

¹Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! ²I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. ³I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God. ⁴Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away. ⁵God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you. ⁶Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord Yahweh of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel. ⁷Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face. ⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children. ⁹For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. ¹⁰When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach. ¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. ¹²Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards. ¹³But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation. ¹⁴Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. ¹⁵Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me. ¹⁶Answer me, Yahweh, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me. ¹⁷Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily! ¹⁸Draw near to my soul, and redeem it. Ransom 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 some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none. ²¹They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. ²²Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap. ²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent. ²⁴Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them. ²⁵Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents. ²⁶For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt. ²⁷Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness. ²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous. ²⁹But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me. ³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. ³¹It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs. ³²The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live. ³³For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people. ³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein! ³⁵For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it. ³⁶The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.

World English Bible (public domain)