Psalm 55

Betrayal by a Friend

For the choir director: with stringed instruments. A Davidic Maskil.

God, listen to my prayer
and do not ignore[a] my plea for help.(A)
Pay attention to me and answer me.(B)
I am restless and in turmoil with my complaint,(C)
because of the enemy’s voice,
because of the pressure[b] of the wicked.
For they bring down disaster on me[c]
and harass me in anger.(D)

My heart shudders within me;(E)
terrors of death sweep over me.
Fear and trembling grip me;
horror has overwhelmed me.(F)
I said, “If only I had[d] wings like a dove!
I would fly away and find rest.(G)
How far away I would flee;
I would stay in the wilderness.(H)Selah
I would hurry to my shelter
from the raging wind and the storm.”(I)

Lord, confuse[e] and confound their speech,[f](J)
for I see violence and strife in the city;
10 day and night they make the rounds on its walls.
Crime and trouble are within it;(K)
11 destruction is inside it;
oppression and deceit never leave its marketplace.(L)

12 Now it is not an enemy who insults me—
otherwise I could bear it;
it is not a foe who rises up against me—
otherwise I could hide from him.
13 But it is you, a man who is my peer,
my companion and good friend!(M)
14 We used to have close fellowship;
we walked with the crowd into the house of God.(N)

15 Let death take them by surprise;(O)
let them go down to Sheol alive,
because evil is in their homes and within them.(P)

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 55:1 Lit hide Yourself from
  2. Psalm 55:3 Or threat, or oppression
  3. Psalm 55:3 LXX, Syr, Sym; MT reads they cause me to totter
  4. Psalm 55:6 Lit “Who will give to me . . . dove?
  5. Psalm 55:9 Or destroy
  6. Psalm 55:9 Lit and divide their tongue

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