Dual Panel1For the leader: on stringed instruments: a maskil: for David LISTEN, God, to my prayer: do not hide yourself from my pleading.
2Hear me and give me an answer, for my cares leave me no peace.
3I am panic-stricken at the hostile shouts, at the shrill clamour of the wicked; for they heap trouble on me and revile me in their fury.
4My heart is torn with anguish and the terrors of death bear down on me.
5Fear and trembling assail me and my whole frame shudders.
6I say: “Oh that I had the wings of a dove to fly away and find rest!”
7I would escape far away to a refuge in the wilderness. [Selah]
8Soon I would find myself a shelter from raging wind and tempest.
9Frustrate and divide their counsels, Lord! I have seen violence and strife in the city;
10day and night they encircle it, all along its walls; it is filled with trouble and mischief,
11destruction is rife within it; its public square is never free from oppression and deceit.
12It was no enemy that taunted me, or I should have avoided him; no foe that treated me with scorn, or I should have kept out of his way.
13It was you, a man of my own sort, a comrade, my own dear friend;
14we held pleasant converse together walking with the throng in the house of God.
15May death strike them, may they go down alive into Sheol; for their homes are haunts of evil!
16But I appeal to God, and the LORD will save me.
17Evening and morning and at noonday I make my complaint and groan.
18He will hear my cry and deliver me and give me security so that none may attack me, for many are hostile to me.
19God hears, and he humbles them, he who is enthroned from of old. [Selah] They have no respect for an oath, nor any fear of God.
20Such men do violence to those at peace with them and break their solemn word;
21their speech is smoother than butter, but their thoughts are of war; their words are softer than oil, but they themselves are like drawn swords.
22Commit your fortunes to the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.
23But you will cast them down, God, into the pit of destruction; bloodthirsty and treacherous, they will not live out half their days. For my part, LORD, I shall put my trust in you.