PSALM 71

    ¹In You, O LORD, I shelter.

          Let me never be shamed.

    ²Through Your bounty save me and free me.

          Incline Your ear to me and rescue me.

    ³Be for me a fortress-dwelling

          to come into always.

    You ordained to rescue me,

          for You are my rock and my bastion.

    ⁴My God, free me from the hand of the wicked,

          from the grip of the wicked and the violent.

    ⁵For You are my hope, Master,

          O LORD, my refuge since youth.

    ⁶Upon You I relied from birth.

          From my mother’s womb You brought me out.

              To You is my praise always.

    ⁷An example I was to the many,

          and You are my sheltering strength.

    ⁸May my mouth be filled with Your praise,

          all day long Your glory.

    ⁹Do not fling me away in old age,

          as my strength fails, do not forsake me.

    ¹⁰For my enemies said of me,

          who stalk me counseled together,

    ¹¹saying, “God has forsaken him.

          Pursue and catch him, for no one will save him.”

    ¹²God, do not keep far from me.

          My God, hasten to my help!

    ¹³May my accusers be shamed, may they perish—

          may they be clothed with shame and reproach,

              who seek my harm.

    ¹⁴As for me, I shall always hope

          and add to all Your praise.

    ¹⁵My mouth will recount Your bounty,

          all day long Your rescue,

              for I know not numbers.

    ¹⁶I shall come in the power of the Master, the LORD.

          I shall call to mind Your bounty—You only.

    ¹⁷God, You have taught me since my youth,

          and till now I have told Your wonders.

    ¹⁸And even in hoary old age,

          O God, do not forsake me.

    Till I tell of Your mighty arm to the next generation,

          to all those who will come, Your power,

    ¹⁹and Your bounty, O God, to the heights,

          as You have done great things,

              O God, who is like You?

    ²⁰As You surfeited me with great and dire distress,

          You will once more give me life,

              and from earth’s depths once more bring me up.

    ²¹You will multiply my greatness

          and turn round and comfort me.

    ²²And so I shall acclaim You with the lute.

          —Your truth, my God.

    Let me hymn You with the lyre,

          Israel’s Holy One.

    ²³My lips will sing glad song when I hymn to You,

          and my being that You ransomed.

    ²⁴My tongue, too, all day long

          will murmur Your bounty.

    For they are shamed, for they are disgraced,

          those who sought my harm.