For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A poem by David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.

• ¹Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up.
• All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.

• ²My enemies want to swallow me up all day long,
• for they are many who fight proudly against me.

• ³When I am afraid,
• I will put my trust in you.

• ⁴In God, I praise his word.
• In God, I put my trust.

• I will not be afraid.
• What can flesh do to me?

• ⁵All day long they twist my words.
• All their thoughts are against me for evil.

• ⁶They conspire and lurk,
• watching my steps, they are eager to take my life.

• ⁷Shall they escape by iniquity?
• In anger cast down the peoples, God.

• ⁸You number my wanderings.
• You put my tears into your bottle.
• Aren’t they in your book?

• ⁹Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call.
• I know this, that God is for me.

• ¹⁰In God, I will praise his word.
• In Yahweh, I will praise his word.

• ¹¹I have put my trust in God.
• I will not be afraid.
• What can man do to me?

• ¹²Your vows are on me, God.
• I will give thank offerings to you.

• ¹³For you have delivered my soul from death,
• and prevented my feet from falling,
• that I may walk before God in the light of the living.