For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David.

• 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.