Psalm 69

¹Save me, O 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,

and the flood sweeps over me.

³I am weary with my crying;

my throat is parched.

My eyes grow dim

with waiting for my God.

⁴More in number than the hairs of my head

are those who hate me without cause;

mighty are those who would destroy me,

those who attack me with lies.

What I did not steal

must I now restore?

⁵O God, thou knowest my folly;

the wrongs I have done are not hidden from thee.

⁶Let not those who hope in thee be put to shame through me,

O Lord God of hosts;

let not those who seek thee be brought to dishonor through me,

O God of Israel.

⁷For it is for thy sake that I have borne reproach,

that shame has covered my face.

⁸I have become a stranger to my brethren,

an alien to my mother’s sons.

⁹For zeal for thy house has consumed me,

and the insults of those who insult thee have fallen on me.

¹⁰When I humbled my soul with fasting,

it became my reproach.

¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing,

I became a byword to them.

¹²I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,

and the drunkards make songs about me.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord.

At an acceptable time, O God,

in the abundance of thy steadfast love answer me.

With thy faithful help ¹⁴rescue me

from sinking in the mire;

let me be delivered from my enemies

and from the deep waters.

¹⁵Let not the flood sweep over me,

or the deep swallow me up,

or the pit close its mouth over me.

¹⁶Answer me, O Lord, for thy steadfast love is good;

according to thy abundant mercy, turn to me.

¹⁷Hide not thy face from thy servant;

for I am in distress, make haste to answer me.

¹⁸Draw near to me, redeem me,

set me free because of my enemies!

¹⁹Thou knowest my reproach,

and my shame and my dishonor;

my foes are all known to thee.

²⁰Insults have broken my heart,

so that I am in despair.

I looked for pity, but there was none;

and for comforters, but I found none.

²¹They gave me poison for food,

and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

²²Let their own table before them become a snare;

let their sacrificial feasts be a trap.

²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see;

and make their loins tremble continually.

²⁴Pour out thy indignation upon them,

and let thy burning anger overtake them.

²⁵May their camp be a desolation,

let no one dwell in their tents.

²⁶For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten,

and him whom thou hast wounded, they afflict still more.

²⁷Add to them punishment upon punishment;

may they have no acquittal from thee.

²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;

let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

²⁹But I am afflicted and in pain;

let thy salvation, O God, set me on high!

³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song;

I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹This will please the Lord more than an ox

or a bull with horns and hoofs.

³²Let the oppressed see it and be glad;

you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

³³For the Lord hears the needy,

and does not despise his own that are in bonds.

³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him,

the seas and everything that moves therein.

³⁵For God will save Zion

and rebuild the cities of Judah;

and his servants shall dwell there and possess it;

³⁶the children of his servants shall inherit it,

and those who love his name shall dwell in it.