Psalm 69 – A Prayer for Deliverance and Vengeance

For the leader. On shoshannim. Of David.

69 Save me, O God; for the waters

are threatening my life.

2 I am sunk in depths of mire,

where ground there is none.

I am come into deep deep waters,

the flood overwhelms me.

3 I am weary of crying, my throat is parched,

my eyes are wasted with waiting for God.

4 More than the hairs of my head

are those who wantonly hate me.

More than my bones in number

are those who are falsely my foes.

That which I never robbed,

how am I then to restore?

5 O God, you know my folly,

my guilt is not hidden from you.

6 Through me let not any be shamed,

who wait for you, Lord God of hosts.

Through me let not those be confounded

who seek you, O God of Israel.

7 It’s in your cause that I have borne taunts,

and my face has been covered with shame;

8 I became to my kindred a foreigner,

to my mother’s sons a stranger.

9 It was zeal for your house that consumed me,

and the insults they hurled at you fell upon me.

10 When I chastened myself with fasting,

they took occasion to taunt me.

11 When I put on a garment of sackcloth,

they made me the theme of a taunt-song.

12 Those who sit in the gate make sport of me

in the music of drunken songs.

13 But I pray to you, Lord,

for a time of favour.

In your great love answer me;

with your loyal help, save me

14 from sinking down in the mire.

Lift me out of the deep deep waters,

15 that the rushing flood may not drown me,

that the deep may not swallow me up,

nor the pit close her mouth upon me.

16 Answer me, Lord, in your gracious kindness,

turn to me in your great compassion.

17 Hide not your face from your servant,

for I am in trouble; O answer me speedily.

18 Draw near to me, redeem me;

because of my enemies, ransom me.

19 You know how I am insulted;

in your sight are all my foes.

20 Insult has broken my heart,

past cure are my shame and confusion.

For pity I looked – there was none!

And for comforters, but I found none.

21 Poison they gave me for food,

and to slake my thirst they gave vinegar.

22 May their table, outspread, be a trap to them,

and their peace-offerings be a snare.

23 May their eyes be darkened and blind,

make them shake without ceasing.

24 Pour your indignation upon them,

let your burning wrath overtake them.

25 May their camp be a desolation,

in their tents be there none to live.

26 For those whom you struck, they persecute,

and those whom you wounded, they pain yet more.

27 Charge them with sin upon sin,

may they not be acquitted by you.

28 From the book of life be they blotted,

may their names not be written with the righteous.

29 Lift me, O God, by your help

above my pain and misery.

30 Then will I praise God in song

and magnify him with thanksgiving,

31 which shall please the Lord better than ox,

or than bullock with horns and hoofs.

32 The oppressed shall rejoice at the sight.

You who seek after God, let your heart revive.

33 For the Lord listens to the poor,

he does not despise his prisoners.

34 Let the heavens and the earth sing his praises,

the seas, and all creatures that move in them.

35 For God will bring help to Zion,

and build up the cities of Judah,

his people shall live there in possession.

36 His servants’ children shall have it for heritage,

and those who love him shall live therein.