Cast Your Burden on the LORD
PSALM 55 [†] g Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2 Attend to me, and answer me;
I am restless h in my complaint and I i moan,
3[^] because of the noise of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they j drop trouble upon me,
and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
4[†] My heart is in anguish within me;
k the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me,
6 And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
7 n yes, I would wander far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter
from o the raging wind and tempest.”
9[†] Destroy, O Lord, p divide their tongues;
for I see q violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and r iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst;
s oppression and fraud
do not depart from its marketplace.
12[†] For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who t deals insolently with me—
then I could hide from him.
13[^] u But it is you, a man, my equal,
my companion, my familiar friend.
14 We used to take sweet counsel together;
within God’s house we walked in v the throng.
15[†] Let death steal over them;
let them go down to Sheol w alive;
for evil is in their dwelling place and in their heart.
16[†] But I call to God,
and the LORD will save me.
17 x Evening and y morning and at z noon
I a utter my complaint and moan,
and he hears my voice.
18[†] He redeems my soul in safety
from the battle that I wage,
for b many are arrayed against me.
19 God will give ear and humble them,
he who is c enthroned from of old, Selah
because they do not d change
and do not fear God.
20[†] My companion [2] e stretched out his hand against his friends;
he violated his covenant.
21 His f speech was g smooth as butter,
yet war was in his heart;
his words were softer than oil,
yet they were h drawn swords.
22[†] i Cast your burden on the LORD,
and he will sustain you;
j he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
23 But you, O God, k will cast them down
into l the pit of destruction;
men of m blood and treachery
shall not n live out half their days.
But I will o trust in you.
To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A p Miktam [1] of David, when the q Philistines seized him in Gath.