Psalm 64

A Plea for Divine Retribution

64For the music director. A psalm of David.^a

¹Hear my voice, O God, in my lamenting.

Preserve my life from the fear of the enemy.

²Hide me from the secret plots^b of evildoers,

from the unrest of those who do iniquity,

³who sharpen their tongue like a sword.

They bend their bow to shoot their arrows—bitter words,

⁴to shoot from^c their^d hiding places at the blameless.

Suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear.

⁵They encourage themselves in the evil matter.

They talk of secretly laying snares.

They say, “Who will see them?”

⁶They carefully plot^e injustices saying,

“We have perfected the perfect plot!”^f

Both the inner thought^g and heart of a man are deep.

⁷But God will shoot them;

with an arrow they will suddenly be wounded.

^8h And they who would cause himⁱ to stumble,

their own tongue will be against them.

All who gaze on them will shake.^j

⁹And then^k all men^l will fear,

and will declare the working of God,

and will understand his doing.

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice in Yahweh and take refuge in him,

and all the upright in heart will boast.