Chapter text
World English Bible
Verse-by-verse text with stable anchors, canonical chapter URLs, and copyable verse links.
- 1 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Lilies.” By David. Save me, 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, where the floods overflow me.
- 3 I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.
- 4 Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.
- 5 God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you.
- 6 Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord GOD of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
- 7 Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.
- 8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.
- 9 For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
- 10 When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.
- 11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
- 12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
- 13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, LORD, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.
- 14 Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
- 15 Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
- 16 Answer me, LORD, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.
- 17 Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!
- 18 Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.
- 19 You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.
- 20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.
- 21 They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
- 22 Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.
- 23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.
- 24 Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.
- 25 Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.
- 26 For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
- 27 Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness.
- 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
- 29 But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.
- 30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
- 31 It will please the LORD better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs.
- 32 The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live.
- 33 For the LORD hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.
- 34 Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein!
- 35 For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it.
- 36 The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.