Psalm 56–60

A David Psalm, When He Was Captured by the Philistines in Gath

^1–456Take my side, God—I’m getting kicked around,

stomped on every day.

Not a day goes by

but somebody beats me up;

They make it their duty

to beat me up.

When I get really afraid

I come to you in trust.

I’m proud to praise God;

fearless now, I trust in God.

What can mere mortals do?

^5–6They don’t let up—

they smear my reputation

and huddle to plot my collapse.

They gang up,

sneak together through the alleys

To take me by surprise,

wait their chance to get me.

⁷Pay them back in evil!

Get angry, God!

Down with these people!

⁸You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn

through the sleepless nights,

Each tear entered in your ledger,

each ache written in your book.

⁹If my enemies run away,

turn tail when I yell at them,

Then I’ll know

that God is on my side.

^10–11I’m proud to praise God,

proud to praise God.

Fearless now, I trust in God;

what can mere mortals do to me?

^12–13God, you did everything you promised,

and I’m thanking you with all my heart.

You pulled me from the brink of death,

my feet from the cliff-edge of doom.

Now I stroll at leisure with God

in the sunlit fields of life.

A David Psalm, When He Hid in a Cave from Saul

^1–357Be good to me, God—and now!

I’ve run to you for dear life.

I’m hiding out under your wings

until the hurricane blows over.

I call out to High God,

the God who holds me together.

He sends orders from heaven and saves me,

he humiliates those who kick me around.

God delivers generous love,

he makes good on his word.

⁴I find myself in a pride of lions

who are wild for a taste of human flesh;

Their teeth are lances and arrows,

their tongues are sharp daggers.

⁵Soar high in the skies, O God!

Cover the whole earth with your glory!

⁶They booby-trapped my path;

I thought I was dead and done for.

They dug a man-trap to catch me,

and fell in headlong themselves.

^7–8I’m ready, God, so ready,

ready from head to toe,

Ready to sing, ready to raise a tune:

“Wake up, soul!

Wake up, harp! wake up, lute!

Wake up, you sleepyhead sun!”

^9–10I’m thanking you, God, out loud in the streets,

singing your praises in town and country.

The deeper your love, the higher it goes;

every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness.

¹¹Soar high in the skies, O God!

Cover the whole earth with your glory!

A David Psalm

^1–258Is this any way to run a country?

Is there an honest politician in the house?

Behind the scenes you brew cauldrons of evil,

behind closed doors you make deals with demons.

^3–5The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle;

their first words out of the womb are lies.

Poison, lethal rattlesnake poison,

drips from their forked tongues—

Deaf to threats, deaf to charm,

decades of wax built up in their ears.

^6–9God, smash their teeth to bits,

leave them toothless tigers.

Let their lives be buckets of water spilled,

all that’s left, a damp stain in the sand.

Let them be trampled grass

worn smooth by the traffic.

Let them dissolve into snail slime,

be a miscarried fetus that never sees sunlight.

Before what they cook up is half-done, God,

throw it out with the garbage!

^10–11The righteous will call up their friends

when they see the wicked get their reward,

Serve up their blood in goblets

as they toast one another,

Everyone cheering, “It’s worth it to play by the rules!

God’s handing out trophies and tending the earth!”

A David Psalm, When Saul Set a Watch on David’s House in Order to Kill Him

^1–259My God! Rescue me from my enemies,

defend me from these mutineers.

Rescue me from their dirty tricks,

save me from their hit men.

^3–4Desperadoes have ganged up on me,

they’re hiding in ambush for me.

I did nothing to deserve this, God,

crossed no one, wronged no one.

All the same, they’re after me,

determined to get me.

^4–5Wake up and see for yourself! You’re God,

God-of-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God!

Get on the job and take care of these pagans,

don’t be soft on these hard cases.

^6–7They return when the sun goes down,

They howl like coyotes, ringing the city.

Then suddenly they’re all at the gate,

Snarling invective, drawn daggers in their teeth.

They think they’ll never get caught.

^8–10But you, God, break out laughing;

you treat the godless nations like jokes.

Strong God, I’m watching you do it,

I can always count on you.

God in dependable love shows up on time,

shows me my enemies in ruin.

^11–13Don’t make quick work of them, God,

lest my people forget.

Bring them down in slow motion,

take them apart piece by piece.

Let all their mean-mouthed arrogance

catch up with them,

Catch them out and bring them down

—every muttered curse

—every barefaced lie.

Finish them off in fine style!

Finish them off for good!

Then all the world will see

that God rules well in Jacob,

everywhere that God’s in charge.

^14–15They return when the sun goes down,

They howl like coyotes, ringing the city.

They scavenge for bones,

And bite the hand that feeds them.

^16–17And me? I’m singing your prowess,

shouting at cockcrow your largesse,

For you’ve been a safe place for me,

a good place to hide.

Strong God, I’m watching you do it,

I can always count on you—

God, my dependable love.

A David Psalm, When He Fought Against Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah and Joab Killed Twelve Thousand Edomites at the Valley of Salt

^1–260God! you walked off and left us,

kicked our defenses to bits

And stalked off angry.

Come back. Oh please, come back!

You shook earth to the foundations,

ripped open huge crevasses.

Heal the breaks! Everything’s

coming apart at the seams.

^3–5You made your people look doom in the face,

then gave us cheap wine to drown our troubles.

Then you planted a flag to rally your people,

an unfurled flag to look to for courage.

Now do something quickly, answer right now,

so the one you love best is saved.

^6–8That’s when God spoke in holy splendor,

“Bursting with joy,

I make a present of Shechem,

I hand out Succoth Valley as a gift.

Gilead’s in my pocket,

to say nothing of Manasseh.

Ephraim’s my hard hat,

Judah my hammer;

Moab’s a scrub bucket,

I mop the floor with Moab,

Spit on Edom,

rain fireworks all over Philistia.”

^9–10Who will take me to the thick of the fight?

Who’ll show me the road to Edom?

You aren’t giving up on us, are you, God?

refusing to go out with our troops?

^11–12Give us help for the hard task;

human help is worthless.

In God we’ll do our very best;

he’ll flatten the opposition for good.