Psalms 69
69
1God, God, save me!
I’m in over my head,
2Quicksand under me, swamp water over me;
I’m going down for the third time.
3I’m hoarse from calling for help,
Bleary-eyed from searching the sky for God.
4I’ve got more enemies than hairs on my head;
Liars and cheats are out to knife me in the back.
What I never stole
Must I now give back?
5God, you know every sin I’ve committed;
My life’s a wide-open book before you.
6Don’t let those who look to you in hope
Be discouraged by what happens to me,
Dear Lord! God of the armies!
Don’t let those out looking for you
Come to a dead end by following me—
Please, dear God of Israel!
7Because of you I look like an idiot,
I walk around ashamed to show my face.
8My brothers shun me like a bum off the street;
My family treats me like an unwanted guest.
9I love you more than I can say.
Because I’m madly in love with you,
They blame me for everything they dislike about you.
10When I poured myself out in prayer and fasting,
All it got me was more contempt.
11When I put on a sad face,
They treated me like a clown.
12Now drunks and gluttons
Make up drinking songs about me.
13And me? I pray.
God, it’s time for a break!
God, answer in love!
Answer with your sure salvation!
14Rescue me from the swamp,
Don’t let me go under for good,
Pull me out of the clutch of the enemy;
This whirlpool is sucking me down.
15Don’t let the swamp be my grave, the Black Hole
Swallow me, its jaws clenched around me.
16Now answer me, God, because you love me;
Let me see your great mercy full-face.
17Don’t look the other way; your servant can’t take it.
I’m in trouble. Answer right now!
18Come close, God; get me out of here.
Rescue me from this deathtrap.
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.
34You heavens, praise him; praise him, earth;
Also ocean and all things that swim in it.
35For God is out to help Zion,
Rebuilding the wrecked towns of Judah.
Guess who will live there—
The proud owners of the land?
36No, the children of his servants will get it,
The lovers of his name will live in it.
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Psalms 69: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Psalms 69
69
PSALM 69
Common Meter: 8,6,8,6
To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim,
A Psalm of David.
1Save me, O God, because the floods
do so environ me,
That ev'n unto my very soul
come in the waters be.
2I downward in deep mire do sink,
where standing there is none:
I am into deep waters come,
where floods have o'er me gone.
3I weary with my crying am,
my throat is also dry'd;
Mine eyes do fail, while for my God
I waiting do abide.
4Those men that do without a cause
bear hatred unto me,
Than are the hairs upon my head
in number more they be:
They that would me destroy, and are
mine en'mies wrongfully,
Are mighty: so what I took not,
to render forc'd was I.
5Lord, thou my folly know'st, my sins
not cover'd are from thee.
6Let none that wait on thee be sham'd,
Lord God of hosts, for me.
O Lord, the God of Israel,
let none, who search do make,
And seek thee, be at any time
confounded for my sake.
7For I have borne reproach for thee,
my face is hid with shame.
8To brethren strange, to mother's sons
an alien I became.
9Because the zeal did eat me up,
which to thine house I bear;
And the reproaches cast at thee,
upon me fallen are.
10My tears and fasts, t' afflict my soul,
were turned to my shame.
11When sackcloth I did wear, to them
a proverb I became.
12The men that in the gate do sit
against me evil spake;
They also that vile drunkards were
of me their song did make.
13But, in an acceptable time,
my pray'r, Lord, is to thee:
In truth of thy salvation, Lord,
and mercy great, hear me.
14Deliver me out of the mire,
from sinking do me keep;
Free me from those that do me hate,
and from the waters deep.
15Let not the flood on me prevail,
whose water overflows;
Nor deep me swallow, nor the pit
her mouth upon me close.
16Hear me, O Lord, because thy love
and kindness is most good;
Turn unto me, according to
thy mercies' multitude.
17Nor from thy servant hide thy face:
I'm troubled, soon attend.
18Draw near my soul, and it redeem;
me from my foes defend.
19To thee is my reproach well known,
my shame, and my disgrace:
Those that mine adversaries be
are all before thy face.
20Reproach hath broke my heart; I'm full
of grief: I look'd for one
To pity me, but none I found;
comforters found I none.
21They also bitter gall did give
unto me for my meat:
They gave me vinegar to drink,
when as my thirst was great.
22Before them let their table prove
a snare; and do thou make
Their welfare and prosperity
a trap themselves to take.
23Let thou their eyes so darken'd be,
that sight may them forsake;
And let their loins be made by thee
continually to shake.
24Thy fury pour thou out on them,
and indignation;
And let thy wrathful anger, Lord,
fast hold take them upon.
25All waste and desolate let be
their habitation;
And in their tabernacles all
inhabitants be none.
26Because him they do persecute,
whom thou didst smite before;
They talk unto the grief of those
whom thou hast wounded sore.
27Add thou iniquity unto
their former wickedness;
And do not let them come at all
into thy righteousness.
28Out of the book of life let them
be raz'd and blotted quite;
Among the just and righteous
let not their names be writ.
29But now become exceeding poor
and sorrowful am I:
By thy salvation, O my God,
let me be set on high.
30The name of God I with a song
most cheerfully will praise;
And I, in giving thanks to him,
his name shall highly raise.
31This to the Lord a sacrifice
more gracious shall prove
Than bullock, ox, or any beast
that hath both horn and hoof.
32When this the humble men shall see,
it joy to them shall give:
O all ye that do seek the Lord,
your hearts shall ever live.
33For God the poor hears, and will not
his prisoners contemn.
34Let heav'n, and earth, and seas, him praise,
and all that move in them.
35For God will Judah's cities build,
and he will Sion save,
That they may dwell therein,
and it in sure possession have.
36And they that are his servants' seed
inherit shall the same;
So shall they have their dwelling there
that love his blessed name.
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