A Psalm for Those Who Suffer Persecution for a Just Cause - Psalm 69

 

For Those Who, at this Very Moment, are suffering Persecution 

Save Me, O God

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. Of David.

69 Save me, O God!
    For the waters have come up to my neck.^[a]

² I sink in deep mire,
    where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
    and the flood sweeps over me.

³ I am weary with my crying out;
    my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
    with waiting for my God.

⁴ More in number than the hairs of my head
    are those who hate me without cause;
mighty are those who would destroy me,
    those who attack me with lies.
What I did not steal
    must I now restore?

⁵ O God, you know my folly;
    the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.

 

⁶ Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,
    O Lord God of hosts;
let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,
    O God of Israel.

⁷ For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
    that dishonor has covered my face.

⁸ I have become a stranger to my brothers,
    an alien to my mother's sons.

⁹ For zeal for your house has consumed me,

    and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

¹⁰ When I wept and humbled^[b] my soul with fasting,
    it became my reproach.

¹¹ When I made sackcloth my clothing,
    I became a byword to them.

¹² I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
    and the drunkards make songs about me.

 

¹³ But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.
    At an acceptable time, O God,
    in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

¹⁴ Deliver me
    from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies
    and from the deep waters.

¹⁵ Let not the flood sweep over me,
    or the deep swallow me up,
    or the pit close its mouth over me.

 

¹⁶ Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good;
    according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.

¹⁷ Hide not your face from your servant,
    for I am in distress; make haste to answer me.

¹⁸ Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
    ransom me because of my enemies!

¹⁹ You know my reproach,
    and my shame and my dishonor;
    my foes are all known to you.

²⁰ Reproaches have broken my heart,
    so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none,
    and for comforters, but I found none.

²¹ They gave me poison for food,
    and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

 

²² Let their own table before them become a snare;
    and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.^[c]

²³ Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see,
    and make their loins tremble continually.

²⁴ Pour out your indignation upon them,
    and let your burning anger overtake them.

²⁵ May their camp be a desolation;
    let no one dwell in their tents.

²⁶ For they persecute him whom you have struck down,
    and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.

²⁷ Add to them punishment upon punishment;
    may they have no acquittal from you.^[d]

²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living;
    let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

²⁹ But I am afflicted and in pain;
    let your salvation, O God, set me on high!

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

³¹ This will please the Lord more than an ox
    or a bull with horns and hoofs.

³² When the humble see it they will be glad;
    you who seek God, let your hearts revive.

³³ For the Lord hears the needy
    and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

 

³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise him,

    the seas and everything that moves in them.

³⁵ For God will save Zion
    and build up the cities of Judah,
and people shall dwell there and possess it;

³⁶ the offspring of his servants shall inherit it,
    and those who love his name shall dwell in it.