Psalm 53–55

Psalm 53

¹Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David. ²When the end of Ziph had come and said to Saul: Is not David hidden with us?

³Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me in thy strength.

⁴O God, hear my prayer: give ear to the words of my mouth.

⁵For strangers have risen up against me; and the mighty have sought after my soul: and they have not set God before their eyes.

⁶For behold God is my helper: and the Lord is the protector of my soul.

⁷Turn back the evils upon my enemies; and cut them off in thy truth.

⁸I will freely sacrifice to thee, and will give praise, O God, to thy name: because it is good:

⁹For thou hast delivered me out of all trouble: and my eye hath looked down upon my enemies.

Psalm 54

¹Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David.

²Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:

³Be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,

⁴At the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.

⁵My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.

⁶Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.

⁷And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?

⁸Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.

⁹I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.

¹⁰Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.

¹¹Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,

¹²And injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.

¹³For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden my self from him.

¹⁴But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,

¹⁵Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.

¹⁶Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.

¹⁷But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.

¹⁸Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.

¹⁹He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.

²⁰God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:

²¹He hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,

²²They are divided by the wrath of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.

²³Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.

²⁴But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.

Psalm 55

¹Unto the end, for a people that is removed at a distance from the sanctuary: for David, for an inscription of a title (or pillar) when the Philistines held him in Geth.

²Have mercy on me, O God, for man hath trodden me under foot; all the day long he hath afflicted me fighting against me.

³My enemies have trodden on me all the day long; for they are many that make war against me.

⁴From the height of the day I shall fear: but I will trust in thee.

⁵In God I will praise my words, in God I have put my trust: I will not fear what flesh can do against me.

⁶All the day long they detested my words: all their thoughts were against me unto evil.

⁷They will dwell and hide themselves: they will watch my heel. As they have waited for my soul,

⁸For nothing shalt thou save them: in thy anger thou shalt break the people in pieces. O God,

⁹I have declared to thee my life: thou hast set me tears in thy sight, As also in thy promise.

¹⁰Then shall my enemies be turned back. In what day soever I shall call upon thee, behold I know thou art my God.

¹¹In God will I praise the word, in the Lord will I praise his speech. In God have I hoped, I will not fear what man can do to me.

¹²In me, O God, are vows to thee, which I will pay, praises to thee:

¹³Because thou hast delivered my soul from death, my feet from falling: that I may please in the sight of God, in the light of the living.