Psalms 55:1-20

¹“For the leader of the music. To be sung on stringed instruments. A psalm of David.” Give ear to my prayer, O God! Hide not thyself from my supplication!

²Attend unto me, and hear me! I wander about mourning and wailing,

³On account of the clamors of the enemy, On account of the violence of the wicked. For they bring evil upon me, And in wrath set themselves against me.

⁴My heart trembleth in my bosom, And the terrors of death have fallen upon me.

⁵Fear and trembling have seized me, And horror hath overwhelmed me.

⁶Then I say, O that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away, and be at rest.

⁷Behold, I would wander far away, And take up my abode in a wilderness. Pause.

⁸I would hasten away to a shelter From the rushing wind and tempest.

⁹Confound, O Lord! divide their counsels! For I behold violence and strife in the city.

¹⁰Day and night do these go about its walls; In the midst of it are iniquity and mischief.

¹¹Wickedness is in the midst of it; Oppression and fraud depart not from its streets.

¹²It was not an enemy that reviled me, Then I could have borne it; Nor one that hated me, who rose up against me; From him I could have hid myself.

¹³But it was thou, a man my equal, My friend, and my acquaintance.

¹⁴We held sweet converse together, And walked to the house of God in company.

¹⁵May sudden death seize upon them! May they go down to the underworld alive! For wickedness is in their dwellings, in the midst of them.

¹⁶As for me, I will call upon God, And Jehovah will save me.

¹⁷At evening, at morn, and at noon I mourn and sigh, And he will hear my voice.

¹⁸He will deliver me in peace from my conflict; For many have risen up against me.

¹⁹God will hear me, and bring them down,—He that hath been judge of old. Pause. Because they have no changes, Therefore they fear not God.

²⁰They lift up their hands against their friend, And break their covenant with him.