Psalm 55:1-14

English Standard Version

Cast Your Burden on the Lord

To the choirmaster: with ^(A)stringed instruments. A Maskil^[a] of David.

55 ^(B)Give ear to my prayer, O God,
    and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
²Attend to me, and answer me;
    I am restless ^(C)in my complaint and I ^(D)moan,
³because of the noise of the enemy,
    because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they ^(E)drop trouble upon me,
    and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

⁴My heart is in anguish within me;
    ^(F)the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
⁵Fear and trembling come upon me,
    and ^(G)horror ^(H)overwhelms me.
⁶And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
    I would fly away and be at rest;
⁷^(I)yes, I would wander far away;
    I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
⁸I would hurry to find a shelter
    from ^(J)the raging wind and tempest.”

⁹Destroy, O Lord, ^(K)divide their tongues;
    for I see ^(L)violence and strife in the city.
¹⁰Day and night they go around it
    on its walls,
and ^(M)iniquity and trouble are within it;
¹¹    ruin is in its midst;
^(N)oppression and fraud
    do not depart from its marketplace.

¹²For it is not an enemy who taunts me—
    then I could bear it;
it is not an adversary who ^(O)deals insolently with me—
    then I could hide from him.
¹³^(P)But it is you, a man, my equal,
    my companion, my familiar friend.
¹⁴We used to take sweet counsel together;
    within God's house we walked in ^(Q)the throng.