Psalm 55
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David.
1 O God, do thou give ear unto
my supplication:
and do not hide thyself away
from my petition.
2 Be thou attentive unto me,
and answer me return,
I in my meditation
do make a noise and mourn.
3 Because of th’ en’my’s voice, because
the wicked have opprest,
for they injustice on me cast
and in wrath me detest.
4 My heart in me is pain’d, on me
death’s terrors fallen be.
5 Trembling and fear are on me come,
horror hath cover’d me.
6 Then did I say, O who to me
wings of a dove will give;
that I might fly away and might
in quiet dwelling live.
7 Lo, I would wander far away,
and in the desert rest. Selah.
8 Soon would I ‘scape from windy storm,
from violent tempest.
9 Lord bring on them destruction,
do thou their tongues divide;
for strife and vi’lence I within
the city have espy’d.
10 About it on the walls thereof,
they do walk night and day:
mischief also and sorrow do
in middest of it stay.
11 In midst thereof there’s wickedness;
deceitfulness also,
and out of the broad streets thereof
guilefulness doth not go.
12 For ‘twas no foe reproach’d me, then
could I have borne; nor did
my foe against me lift himself
from him had I me hid.
13 But thou it was, the man that wert
my well esteemed peer,
which wast to me my special guide,
and mine acquaintance near.
14 We did together counsel take
in sweet society:
and we did walk into the house
of God in company.
15 Let death seize on them, and let them
go down quick into hell:
for wickedness among them is
in places where they dwell.
16 As for me, I will call on God;
and me the Lord save shall.
17 Ev’ning, morn, and at noon will I
pray, and aloud will call,
18 and he shall hear my voice. He hath
in peace my soul set free
from war that was ‘gainst me, because
there many were with me.
19 God shall hear, and them smite, ev’n he
that doth of old abide. Selah.
Because they have no change, therefore
God’s fear they lay aside.