Plea for Help against Persecutors
A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush, a Benjaminite.
O Lord my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me, or like a lion they will tear me apart; they will drag me away, with no one to rescue.
O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my ally with harm or plundered my foe without cause, then let the enemy pursue and overtake me, trample my life to the ground, and lay my soul in the dust.Selah
Rise up, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake, O my God; you have appointed a judgment.
Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered around you, and over it take your seat[b] on high.
The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.
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.
God is my shield, who saves the upright in heart.
God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
If one does not repent, God[c] will whet his sword; he has bent and strung his bow;
he has prepared his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts.
See how they conceive evil, and are pregnant with mischief, and bring forth lies.
They make a pit, digging it out, and fall into the hole that they have made.
Their mischief returns upon their own heads, and on their own heads their violence descends.
I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness, and sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.