[Image: Introduction to the Psalms]
PSALMS 69
Save Me, O God
To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. Of David.
[1] Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
[2] I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
[3] I am weary with my crying out;
my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
with waiting for my God.
[4] More in number than the hairs of my head
are those who hate me without cause;
mighty are those who would destroy me,
those who attack me with lies.
What I did not steal
must I now restore?
[5] O God, you know my folly;
the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
[6] Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,
O Lord GOD of hosts;
let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,
O God of Israel.
[7] For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
that dishonor has covered my face.
[8] I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s sons.
[9] For zeal for your house has consumed me,
and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
[10] When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,
it became my reproach.
[11] When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them.
[12] I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
and the drunkards make songs about me.
[13] But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD.
At an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.
[14] Deliver me
from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
and from the deep waters.
[15] Let not the flood sweep over me,
or the deep swallow me up,
or the pit close its mouth over me.
[16] Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good;
according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
[17] Hide not your face from your servant,
for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.
[18] Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
ransom me because of my enemies!
[19] You know my reproach,
and my shame and my dishonor;
my foes are all known to you.
[20] Reproaches have broken my heart,
so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none,
and for comforters, but I found none.
[21] They gave me poison for food,
and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
[22] Let their own table before them become a snare;
and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.
[23] Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see,
and make their loins tremble continually.
[24] Pour out your indignation upon them,
and let your burning anger overtake them.
[25] May their camp be a desolation;
let no one dwell in their tents.
[26] For they persecute him whom you have struck down,
and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.
[27] Add to them punishment upon punishment;
may they have no acquittal from you.
[28] Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;
let them not be enrolled among the righteous.
[29] But I am afflicted and in pain;
let your salvation, O God, set me on high!
[30] I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
[31] This will please the LORD more than an ox
or a bull with horns and hoofs.
[32] When the humble see it they will be glad;
you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
[33] For the LORD hears the needy
and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.
[34] Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and everything that moves in them.
[35] For God will save Zion
and build up the cities of Judah,
and people shall dwell there and possess it;
[36] the offspring of his servants shall inherit it,
and those who love his name shall dwell in it. (ESV)
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