Plea for Help against Persecutors

A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjaminite.

1 O Lord my God, in you I take refuge;

save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me,

2 or like a lion they will tear me apart;

they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.

3 O Lord my God, if I have done this,

if there is wrong in my hands,

4 if I have repaid my ally with harm

or plundered my foe without cause,

5 then let the enemy pursue and overtake me,

trample my life to the ground,

and lay my soul in the dust. Selah

6 Rise up, O Lord, in your anger;

lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;

awake, O my God;a you have appointed a judgment.

7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you,

and over it take your seatb on high.

8 The Lord judges the peoples;

judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness

and according to the integrity that is in me.

9 O let the evil of the wicked come to an end,

but establish the righteous,

you who test the minds and hearts,

O righteous God.

10 God is my shield,

who saves the upright in heart.

11 God is a righteous judge,

and a God who has indignation every day.

12 If one does not repent, Godc will whet his sword;

he has bent and strung his bow;

13 he has prepared his deadly weapons,

making his arrows fiery shafts.

14 See how they conceive evil,

and are pregnant with mischief,

and bring forth lies.

15 They make a pit, digging it out,

and fall into the hole that they have made.

16 Their mischief returns upon their own heads,

and on their own heads their violence descends.

17 I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,

and sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.