Psalm LXIX

Save me, O God, for rising floods
Unto my fearful soul are come.

I sink in deep unstable mire,
Deep waters have me overflown.

I of my crying weary am,
My voice is hoarse, my throat is dry'd,
My eyes also do fall, while I
Do waiting for my God abide.

More than my hairs of head they be,
Who causeless hatred to me bear,
And my injurious enemies
That would destroy me mighty are.
Then I restored that to them
Which never taken was by me.

O God, thou know'st my foolishness,
And my sins are not hid from thee.

Let not them for my sake be sham'd,
O Lord of Hosts, that wait on thee;
Nor those that seek thee, Israel's God,
For my own cause confounded be.

For thy sake I have born reproach,
And shame hath covered my face;

I to my brethren strange am grown,
An Alien to my mother's race.

Because the zeal did eat me up
Which to thy sacred house I bear,
And the reproaches cast on thee,
Upon me fallen for thy cause are.

When I in tears with fasting lay,
This to my own reproach was turn'd;
A Proverb to them I became

When I in sackcloth cloathed mourn'd.

The great men that sit in the gate,
Spake of me all the ill they think;
And I was made the song of them
That are the drinkers of strong drink.

But, Lord, in an accepted time
My Prayer I send up to thee;
Lord, in thy mercies multitude,
And in thy saving truth hear me.

Deliver me out of the mire,
And me from sinking in it keep;
Save me from them that do me hate,
And out of all these waters deep.

Let not the floods me overflow,
Nor let the deeps up swallow me,
And let not the pit's mouth below
Upon me buryed closed be.

Hear me, O Lord, for thy sure love
And kindness is exceeding good;
Turn thou to me, according to
Thy tender mercies multitude.

From thy servant hide not thy face,
In this my trouble soon attend;

Draw nigh my soul, and it redeem,
And from mine enemies me defend.

To thee is my reproach well known,
My shame and my causeless disgrace;
My adversaries and their ways
Are open all before thy face.

Reproach hath broke my heart, and grief
Abounds in me: I lookt for some
To pity me, but there was none,
True comforters I found not one.

They gave me also bitter gall
For food, which they would have me eat;
They gave me vinegar to drink
In scorn, when as my thirst was great.

Let their own Table be their snare,
Do thou to them in justice make
Their welfare and posterity
Become a trap themselves to take.

And let their eyes so darkened be,
That pleasant light do them forsake;
And let their weakned Ioyns by thee
Be made continually to shake.

Thy dreadful indignation
Pour out upon these wicked men;
And let thy hot displeasure, and
Thy heavy wrath take hold on them.

And let their stately palaces
Be left as desolate; within
Their tents without inhabitants,
Where these ill men have dwellers bin.

Because him whom thou didst correct,
Yet they have persecuted more;
They talk unto the grief of those
Whom thou didst strike and wound before.

Add thou deserved punishment
Unto their hainous wilful sin;
And to thy saying righteousness
Let them not have admission in.

Out of the book of living men
Let them by death be blotted quite;
And with the just that blessed are,
Do not their names number and write.

But I am poor and sorrowful,
Because of my adversity;
But let thy saving grace, O Lord,
Yet raise and set me up on high.

The Name of God I with a song
Will praise and honour joyfully,
And with thanksgiving for his grace,
The Lord's name I will magnifie.

This also shall a sacrifice
More acceptable to him be
Than Bull or Ox with hoof and horns,
If they were offered by me.

The meek and humble shall be glad,
And greatly joy when this they see:
Your hearts shall live that seek the Lord,
And ever comfortable be.

Because the Lord doth hear the poor
When they to him do cry and pray;
And doth not neglect or despise
Those that for him in prison lay.

Let the high heav'ns and spacious earth
Unto Jehovah praises give;
The Ocean deep, and every thing
Which therein doth but creep and live.

For God will surely Sion save,
And Judah's Cities again build;
That men may them possess, and dwell
In houses plentifully fill'd.

And they that are his servants seed,
Shall be possessors of the same;
And they shall have their dwelling there,
Who do sincerely love his name.