Chapter 69

  To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in to my soul.  

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  I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.  

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  I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: my eyes fail while I wait for my God.  

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  They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: they that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.  

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  O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.  

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  Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.  

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  Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.  

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  I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to my mother's children.  

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  For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee have fallen upon me.  

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  When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.  

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  I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.  

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  They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.  

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  But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.  

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  Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.  

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  Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.  

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  Hear me, O LORD; for thy loving-kindness is good: turn to me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.  

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  And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.  

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  Draw nigh to my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of my enemies.  

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  Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: my adversaries are all before thee.  

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  Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.  

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  They gave me also gall for my food; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.  

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  Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.  

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  Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.  

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  Pour out thy indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.  

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  Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.  

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  For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.  

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  Add iniquity to their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.  

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  Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.  

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  But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.  

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  I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.  

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  This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.  

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  The humble shall see this, and be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.  

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  For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.  

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  Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.  

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  For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.  

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  The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.  

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