PSALM 69

¹For the lead player, on shoshanim, for David.

    ²Rescue me, God,

          for the waters have come up to my neck.

    ³I have sunk in the slime of the deep,

          and there is no place to stand.

    I have entered the watery depths,

          and the current has swept me away.

    ⁴I am exhausted from my calling out.

          My throat is hoarse.

    My eyes fail

          from hoping for my God.

    ⁵More numerous than the hairs of my head

          are my unprovoked foes.

    My destroyers grow strong,

          my lying foes.

    What I have not stolen

          should I then give back?

    ⁶God, You know my folly,

          and my guilt is not hidden from You.

    ⁷Let not those who hope for You be shamed through me.

          Master, O LORD of Armies.

    Let those who seek You be not disgraced through me,

          God of Israel.

    ⁸Because for You I have borne reproach,

          disgrace has covered my face.

    ⁹Estranged I have been from my brothers,

          and an alien to my mother’s sons.

    ¹⁰For the zeal of Your house has consumed me,

          the reproach of Your reproachers has fallen on me.

    ¹¹And in fasting I wept for my being—

          it became a reproach for me.

    ¹²I made sackcloth my garment

          and became for them a byword.

    ¹³I was the talk of those who sit in the gate,

          the drunkards’ taunting song.

    ¹⁴But I–may my prayer to You,

          O LORD, come in a favorable hour.

    God, as befits Your great kindness,

          answer me with Your steadfast rescue.

    ¹⁵Save me from the mire, that I not drown.

          Let me be saved from my foes and from the watery depths.

    ¹⁶Let the waters’ current not sweep me away

          and let not the deep swallow me,

              and let the Pit not close its mouth on me.

    ¹⁷Answer me, LORD, for Your kindness is good,

          in Your great compassion turn to me.

    ¹⁸And hide not Your face from Your servant,

          for I am in straits. Hurry, answer me.

    ¹⁹Come near me, redeem me.

          Because of my enemies, ransom me.

    ²⁰It is You who know my reproach,

          and my shame and disgrace before all my foes.

    ²¹Reproach breaks my heart, I grow ill;

          I hope for consolation, and there is none,

              and for comforters, and do not find them.

    ²²They gave for my nourishment wormwood,

          and for my thirst they made me drink vinegar.

    ²³May their table before them become a trap,

          and their allies a snare.

    ²⁴May their eyes grow too dark to see,

          make their loins perpetually shake.

    ²⁵Pour out upon them Your wrath,

          and Your blazing fury overtake them.

    ²⁶May their encampment be laid waste,

          and in their tents may no one dwell.

    ²⁷For You—whom You struck they pursued,

          and they recounted the pain of Your victims.

    ²⁸Add guilt upon their guilt,

          and let them have no part in Your bounty.

    ²⁹Let them be wiped out from the book of life,

          and among the righteous let them not be written.

    ³⁰But I am lowly and hurting.

          Your rescue, O LORD, will protect me.

    ³¹Let me praise God’s name in song,

          and let me extol Him in thanksgiving.

    ³²And let it be better to the LORD than oxen,

          than a horned bull with its hooves.

    ³³The lowly have seen and rejoiced,

          those who seek God, let their hearts be strong.

    ³⁴For the LORD listens to the needy,

          and His captives He has not despised.

    ³⁵Let heaven and earth extol Him,

          the seas and all that stirs within them.

    ³⁶For God will rescue Zion

          and rebuild the towns of Judah,

              and they will dwell there and possess it.

    ³⁷And the seed of His servants will inherit it,

          and those who love His name will dwell there.