Psalm 59

Common English Bible

Psalm 59

For the music leader. Do not destroy. A miktam^[a] of David, when Saul sent men to watch the house in order to kill him.

59 Oh, my God, deliver me from my enemies;
    put me out of reach from those who rise up against me.
²Deliver me from evildoers;
    save me from the bloodthirsty.
³Look at how they lie in ambush for my life!
    Powerful people are attacking me, Lord—
        but not because of any error or sin of mine.
⁴    They run and take their stand—
        but not because of any fault of mine.

Get up when I cry out to you!
    Look at what’s happening!
⁵You are the Lord God of heavenly forces,
    the God of Israel!
Wake up and punish all the nations!
    Grant no mercy to any wicked traitor! Selah

⁶They come back every evening,
    growling like dogs,
    prowling around the city.
⁷See what they belch out with their mouths:
    swords are between their lips!
        Who can listen to them?^[b]
⁸But you, Lord, laugh at them.
    You mock all the nations.
⁹I keep looking for you, my strength,
    because God is my stronghold.
¹⁰My loving God will come to meet me.
    God will allow me to look down on my enemies.

¹¹Don’t kill them, or my people might forget;
    instead, by your power
    shake them up and bring them down,
        you who are our shield and my Lord.
¹²For the sin of their mouths,
    the words that they speak,
    let them be captured in their pride.
For the curses and lies they repeat,
¹³        finish them off in anger;
        finish them off until they are gone!
Then let it be known to the ends of the earth
    that God rules over Jacob. Selah

¹⁴They come back every evening,
    growling like dogs,
    prowling around the city.
¹⁵They roam about for food,
    and if they don’t get their fill,
    they stay all night.
¹⁶But me? I will sing of your strength!
    In the morning I will shout out loud
    about your faithful love
        because you have been my stronghold,
        my shelter when I was distraught.
¹⁷I will sing praises to you, my strength,
    because God is my stronghold,
    my loving God.

Footnotes

Psalm 59:1 Perhaps inscription
Psalm 59:7 Heb uncertain

1 Samuel 19:11-18

Common English Bible

¹¹Saul sent messengers to David’s house to keep watch on it and kill him in the morning. David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you don’t escape with your life tonight, you are a dead man tomorrow.” ¹²So Michal lowered David through a window. He took off and ran, and he got away. ¹³Then Michal took the household’s divine image and laid it in the bed, putting some goat’s hair on its head and covering it with clothes.

¹⁴Saul sent messengers to arrest David, but she said, “He’s sick.”

¹⁵Saul sent the messengers back to check on David for themselves. “Bring him to me on his bed,” he ordered, “so he can be executed.” ¹⁶When the messengers arrived, they found the idol in the bed with the goat’s hair on its head. ¹⁷Saul said to Michal, “Why could you betray me like this, letting my enemy go so that now he has escaped?”

Michal said to Saul, “David told me, ‘Help me get away or I’ll kill you!’”

¹⁸So David fled and escaped. When he reached Samuel at Ramah, he reported to him everything Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to stay in the camps.^[a]

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