PSALM 31

    ¹To the lead player, a David psalm.

    ²In You, O LORD, I shelter.

          Let me never be shamed.

                In Your bounty, O free me.

    ³Incline Your ear to me.

          Quick, save me.

    Be my stronghold of rock,

          a fort-house to rescue me.

    ⁴For You are my crag and my bastion,

          and for Your name’s sake guide me and lead me.

    ⁵Get me out of the net that they laid for me,

          for You are my stronghold.

    ⁶In Your hand I commend my spirit.

          You redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth.

    ⁷I hate those who look to vaporous lies.

          As for me, I trust in the LORD.

    ⁸Let me exult and rejoice in Your kindness,

          that You saw my affliction,

                You knew the straits of my life.

    ⁹And You did not yield me to my enemy’s hand,

          You set my feet in a wide-open place.

    ¹⁰Grant me grace, LORD, for I am distressed.

          My eye is worn out in vexation,

                my throat and my belly.

    ¹¹For my life is exhausted in sorrow

          and my years in sighing.

    Through my crime my strength stumbles

          and my limbs are worn out.

    ¹²For all my enemies I become a disgrace,

          just as much to my neighbors, and fear to my friends.

                Those who see me outside draw back from me.

    ¹³Forgotten from the heart like the dead,

          I become like a vessel lost.

    ¹⁴For I heard the slander of many,

          terror all round,

    when they conspired against me,

          when they plotted to take my life.

    ¹⁵As for me, I trust in You, O LORD.

          I say, “You are my God.”

    ¹⁶My times are in Your hand—O save me

          from the hand of my enemies, my pursuers.

    ¹⁷Shine Your face on Your servant,

          Rescue me in Your kindness.

    ¹⁸LORD, let me not be shamed, for I call You.

          Let the wicked know shame,

                and be stilled in Sheol.

    ¹⁹Let lying lips be silent,

          that speak haughty against the just

                in arrogance and contempt.

    ²⁰How great Your goodness

          that You hid for those who fear You.

    You have wrought for those who shelter in You

          before the eyes of humankind.

    ²¹Conceal them in the hiding place of Your presence

          from the crookedness of man.

    Hide them in Your shelter

          from the quarrel of tongues.

    ²²Blessed is the LORD,

          for He has done me wondrous kindness

                in a town under siege.

    ²³And I had thought in my haste:

          “I am banished from before Your eyes.”

    Yet You heard the sound of my pleading

          when I cried out to You.

    ²⁴Love the LORD, all his faithful,

          steadfastness the LORD keeps

                and pays back in good measure the haughty in acts.

    ²⁵Be strong, and let your heart be firm,

          all who hope in the LORD.