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Psalm 55

For the music leader. With stringed instruments. A maskil[a] of David.

55 God, listen to my prayer;
    don’t avoid my request!
Pay attention! Answer me!
    I can’t sit still while complaining.
    I’m beside myself
        over the enemy’s noise,
        at the wicked person’s racket,
        because they bring disaster on me
        and harass me furiously.

My heart pounds in my chest
    because death’s terrors have reached me.
Fear and trembling have come upon me;
    I’m shaking all over.
I say to myself,
    I wish I had wings like a dove!
    I’d fly away and rest.
    I’d run so far away!
    I’d live in the desert. Selah
    I’d hurry to my hideout,
    far from the rushing wind and storm.

Baffle them, my Lord!
    Confuse their language
    because I see violence and conflict in the city.
10 Day and night they make their rounds on its walls,
    and evil and misery live inside it.
11 Disaster lives inside it;
    oppression and fraud never leave the town square.

12 It’s not an enemy that is insulting me—
    I could handle that.
It’s not someone who hates me
    who is exalted over me—
    I could hide from them.
13 No. It’s you, my equal,
    my close companion, my good friend!
14 It was so pleasant when
    together we entered God’s house with the crowd.

15 Let death devastate my enemies;
    let them go to the grave[b] alive
        because evil lives with them—
        even inside them!
16 But I call out to God,
    and the Lord will rescue me.
17 At evening, morning, and midday
    I complain and moan
    so that God will hear my voice.
18 He saves me,[c] unharmed, from my struggle,
    though there are many who are out to get me.
19 God, who is enthroned from ancient days,
    will hear and humble them Selah
        because they don’t change
        and they don’t worship God.

20 My friend attacked his allies,
    breaking his covenant.
21 Though his talk is smoother than butter,
        war is in his heart;
    though his words are more silky than oil,
        they are really drawn swords:
22 “Cast your burden on the Lord
    he will support you!
    God will never let the righteous be shaken!”

23 But you, God, bring the wicked
    down to the deepest pit.
    Let bloodthirsty and treacherous people
    not live out even half their days.
        But me? I trust in you!

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 55:1 Perhaps instruction
  2. Psalm 55:15 Heb Sheol
  3. Psalm 55:18 Or my life or soul

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