To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David.

¹Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.

²I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

³I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

⁴They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.

⁵O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

⁶Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.

⁷Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

⁸I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.

⁹For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

¹⁰When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.

¹¹I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.

¹²They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

¹⁴Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

¹⁵Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

¹⁶Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

¹⁷And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.

¹⁸Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

¹⁹Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.

²⁰Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

²¹They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

²²Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.

²³Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.

²⁴Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

²⁵Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.

²⁶For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.

²⁷Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.

²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

²⁹But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

³²The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.

³³For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.

³⁴Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.

³⁵For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.

³⁶The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.