Psalm 69

For the end, a Psalm of David, for ¹alternate strains.

¹ Save me, O God; for the waters have come in to my soul. ² I am stuck fast in deep mire, and there is no standing: I am come in to the depths of the sea, and a storm has overwhelmed me. ³ I am weary of crying, my throat has become hoarse; mine eyes have failed by my waiting on my God. ⁴ They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: my enemies that persecute me unrighteously are strengthened: then I ²restored that which I took not away.

⁵ O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my transgressions are not hidden from thee. ⁶ Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord of hosts, be ashamed on my account: let not them that seek thee, be ashamed on my account, O God of Israel. ⁷ For I have suffered reproach for thy sake; shame has covered my face. ⁸ I became strange to my brethren, and a stranger to my mother's children. ^{9 3}For the zeal of thine house has eaten me up; and the reproaches of

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them that reproached thee are fallen upon me. ¹⁰ And I bowed down my soul with fasting, and that was made my reproach. ¹¹ And I put on sackcloth for my covering; and I became a proverb to them. ¹² They that sit in the gate talked against me, and they that drank wine sang against me.

¹³ But I will cry to thee, O Lord, in my prayer; O God, it is a propitious time: in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. ¹⁴ Save me from the mire, that I stick not in it: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and from the deep waters. ¹⁵ Let not the waterflood drown me, nor let the deep swallow me up; neither let the well shut its mouth upon me. ¹⁶ Hear me, O Lord; for thy mercy is good: according to the multitude of thy compassions look upon me. ¹⁷ And turn not away thy face from thy ⁴servant; for I am afflicted: hear me speedily. ¹⁸ Draw nigh to my soul and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

¹⁹ For thou knowest my reproach, and my shame, and my confusion; all that afflict me are before thee. ²⁰ My soul has waited for reproach and misery; and I waited for one to grieve with me, but there was none; and for one to comfort me, but I found none. ²¹ They gave me also gall for my food, and made me drink vinegar for my thirst. ^{22 5}Let their table before them be for a snare, and for a recompense, and for a stumbling-block. ²³ Let their eyes be darkened that they should not see; and bow down their back continually. ²⁴ Pour out thy wrath upon them, and let the fury of thine anger take hold on them. ^{25 6}Let their habitation be made desolate; and let there be no inhabitant in their tents: ²⁶ Because they persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds. ²⁷ Add iniquity to their iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteousness. ²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous.

²⁹ I am poor and sorrowful; but the salvation of thy countenance has helped me. ³⁰ I will praise the name of my God with a song, I will magnify him with praise; ³¹ and this shall please God more than a young calf having horns and hoofs. ³² Let the poor see and rejoice; seek the Lord diligently, and ye shall live. ³³ For the Lord hears the poor, and does not set at nought his fettered ones. ³⁴ Let the heavens and the earth raise him, the sea, and all things moving in them. ³⁵ For God will save Sion, and the cities of Judea shall be built; and men shall dwell there, and inherit it. ³⁶ And the seed of his servants shall possess it, and they that love his name shall dwell therein.