Psalms 55 / 150
- 1
(Cast Your Burden on the Lord)To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David.
Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
- 2
Attend to me, and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
- 3
because of the noise of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they drop trouble upon me,
and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
- 4
My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
- 5
Fear and trembling come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me.
- 6
And I say, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
- 7
yes, I would wander far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
- 8
I would hurry to find a shelter
from the raging wind and tempest."
- 9
Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
- 10
Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
- 11
ruin is in its midst;
oppression and fraud
do not depart from its marketplace.
- 12
For it is not an enemy who taunts me--
then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me--
then I could hide from him.
- 13
But it is you, a man, my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend.
- 14
We used to take sweet counsel together;
within God's house we walked in the throng.
- 15
Let death steal over them;
let them go down to Sheol alive;
for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
- 16
But I call to God,
and the Lord will save me.
- 17
Evening and morning and at noon
I utter my complaint and moan,
and he hears my voice.
- 18
He redeems my soul in safety
from the battle that I wage,
for many are arrayed against me.
- 19
God will give ear and humble them,
he who is enthroned from of old, Selah
because they do not change
and do not fear God.
- 20
My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;
he violated his covenant.
- 21
His speech was smooth as butter,
yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
yet they were drawn swords.
- 22
Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
- 23
But you, O God, will cast them down
into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.