Psalm 69:19–33

¹⁹You know how they kick me around—

Pin on me the donkey’s ears, the dunce’s cap.

²⁰I’m broken by their taunts,

Flat on my face, reduced to a nothing.

I looked in vain for one friendly face. Not one.

I couldn’t find one shoulder to cry on.

²¹They put poison in my soup,

Vinegar in my drink.

²²Let their supper be bait in a trap that snaps shut;

May their best friends be trappers who’ll skin them alive.

²³Make them become blind as bats,

Give them the shakes from morning to night.

²⁴Let them know what you think of them,

Blast them with your red-hot anger.

²⁵Burn down their houses,

Leave them desolate with nobody at home.

²⁶They gossiped about the one you disciplined,

Made up stories about anyone wounded by God.

²⁷Pile on the guilt,

Don’t let them off the hook.

²⁸Strike their names from the list of the living;

No rock-carved honor for them among the righteous.

²⁹I’m hurt and in pain;

Give me space for healing, and mountain air.

³⁰Let me shout God’s name with a praising song,

Let me tell his greatness in a prayer of thanks.

³¹For God, this is better than oxen on the altar,

Far better than blue-ribbon bulls.

³²The poor in spirit see and are glad—

Oh, you God-seekers, take heart!

³³For God listens to the poor,

He doesn’t walk out on the wretched.