Psalms - Chapter 68

Passage

To the end, for them that shall be changed; for David. Save me, O God: for the waters are come in even to my soul. I stick fast in the mire of the deep and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea, and a tempest has overwhelmed me. I have labored with crying; my jaws are become hoarse, my eyes have failed, while I hope in my God. They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, who hate me without cause. My enemies are grown strong who have wrongfully persecuted me: then did I pay that which I took not away. O God, you know my foolishness; and my offences are not hidden from you: Let not them be ashamed for me, who look for you, O Lord, the Lord of hosts. Let them not be confounded on my account, who seek you, O God of Israel. Because for your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face. I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to the sons of my mother. For the zeal of your house has eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached you are fallen upon me. And I covered my soul in fasting: and it was made a reproach to me. And I made haircloth my garment: and I became a byword to them. They that sat in the gate spoke against me: and they that drank wine made me their song. But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord; for the time of your good pleasure, O God. In the multitude of your mercy hear me, in the truth of your salvation. Draw me out of the mire, that I may not stick fast: deliver me from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep water swallow me up: and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O Lord, for your mercy is kind; look upon me according to the multitude of your tender mercies. And turn not away your face from your servant: for I am in trouble, hear me speedily. Attend to my soul, and deliver it: save me because of my enemies. You know my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame. In your sight are all they that afflict me; my heart has expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none. And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Let their table become as a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumblingblock. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and their back bend you down always. Pour out your indignation upon them: and let your wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be made desolate: and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles. Because they have persecuted him whom you have smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds. Add iniquity upon their iniquity: and let them not come into your justice. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written. But I am poor and sorrowful: your salvation, O God, has set me up. I will praise the name of God with a canticle: and I will magnify him with praise. And it shall please God better than a young calf, that brings forth horns and hoofs. Let the poor see and rejoice: seek you God, and your soul shall live. For the Lord has heard the poor: and has not despised his prisoners. Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creeps therein. For God will save Sion, and the cities of Juda shall be built up. And they shall dwell there, and acquire it by inheritance. And the seed of his servants shall possess it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.