Psalm 59

¹¹Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

¹²So Michal lowered David from the window, and he ran away and escaped.

⁴⁸who delivers me from my enemies. You exalt me above my foes; You rescue me from violent men.

⁷⁴deliverance from hostile hands, that we may serve Him without fear,

⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives.

¹⁶he will dwell on the heights; the mountain fortress will be his refuge; his food will be provided and his water assured.

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul into the cave. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy, for in You my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of Your wings I will take shelter until the danger has passed.

¹A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite. O Lord my God, I take refuge in You; save me and deliver me from all my pursuers,

²or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

¹⁹O God, that You would slay the wicked—away from me, you bloodthirsty men—

⁹Do not take my soul away with sinners, or my life with men of bloodshed,

²³But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

²When the wicked came upon me to devour my flesh, my enemies and foes stumbled and fell.

⁶They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps while they wait to take my life.

⁴Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head; many are those who would destroy me—my enemies for no reason. Though I did not steal, I must repay.

¹¹See, my father, look at the corner of your robe in my hand. For I cut it off, but I did not kill you. Know and see that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands. I have not sinned against you, even though you are hunting me down to take my life.

²⁵But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’

⁶The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.

²The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.

²³Awake and rise to my defense, to my cause, my God and my Lord!

¹⁶For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.

⁶You destroy those who tell lies; the Lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

¹⁵Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him down to you on the pretext of examining his case more carefully. We are ready to kill him on the way.”

¹²So Michal lowered David from the window, and he ran away and escaped.

¹³Then Michal took a household idol and laid it in the bed, placed some goat hair on its head, and covered it with a garment.

¹⁹Let not my enemies gloat over me without cause, nor those who hate me without reason wink in malice.

⁸O Lord God of Hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah

¹⁵Let death seize them by surprise; let them go down to Sheol alive, for evil is with them in their homes.

¹⁵The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

²⁰There he set up an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

⁴O Lord God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?

¹⁴They return in the evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city.

¹⁶For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.

¹¹Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and kill him in the morning. But David’s wife Michal warned him, “If you do not run for your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead!”

⁴My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

²The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool spouts folly.

¹¹He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”

¹¹The wicked say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?”

¹³Why has the wicked man renounced God? He says to himself, “You will never call me to account.”

¹⁸Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

²⁶in turn I will mock your calamity; I will sneer when terror strikes you,

¹³but the Lord laughs, seeing that their day is coming.

⁴The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord taunts them.

⁵O Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel, rouse Yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah

¹⁷If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

¹⁵But Saul sent the messengers back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so I can kill him.”

¹⁶And when the messengers entered, there was the idol in the bed with the goat hair on its head.

⁹The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.

³You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever, because God the Lord is the Rock eternal.

²He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress; I will never be shaken.

¹⁴Wait patiently for the Lord; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the Lord!

¹⁷To You, O my strength, I sing praises, for You, O God, are my fortress, my God of loving devotion.

¹Of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread?

¹⁰And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.

³For You welcomed him with rich blessings; You placed on his head a crown of pure gold.

⁷For He has delivered me from every trouble, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

¹⁷To You, O my strength, I sing praises, for You, O God, are my fortress, my God of loving devotion.

¹¹My eyes see the downfall of my enemies; my ears hear the wailing of my wicked foes.

⁵He will reward my enemies with evil. In Your faithfulness, destroy them.

³But You, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.

⁶⁴Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

⁶In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.

⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble.

²⁷Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.

⁶As Adoni-bezek fled, they pursued him, seized him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

⁷Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.

¹³An evil man is trapped by his rebellious speech, but a righteous man escapes from trouble.

⁷His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and violence; trouble and malice are under his tongue.

⁷A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.

²Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

³⁶But I tell you that men will give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.

³⁷For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

³What will He do to you, and what will be added to you, O deceitful tongue?

⁴Sharp arrows will come from the warrior, with burning coals of the broom tree!

¹⁸May they know that You alone, whose name is the Lord, are Most High over all the earth.

⁹Put an end to the evil of the wicked, but establish the righteous, O righteous God who searches hearts and minds.

⁷So I will make My holy name known among My people Israel and will no longer allow it to be profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

¹¹Do not kill them, or my people will forget. Scatter them by Your power, and bring them down, O Lord, our shield.

²³I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and I will reveal Myself in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁴The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.

¹⁵Indeed, the Lord’s hand was against them, to eliminate them from the camp, until they had all perished.

¹⁶For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.

⁶They return in the evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city.

²³He wanders about as food for vultures; he knows the day of darkness is at hand.

¹⁰May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes.

¹“But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to put with my sheep dogs.

²What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?

⁹We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness.

¹¹Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied. They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain:

⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

⁸All these are the beginning of birth pains.

¹³Be exalted, O Lord, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power.

²⁰Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,

⁹so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise You among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to Your name.”

⁵For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.

⁸Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.

⁶to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

⁷In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

¹For the choirmaster. Of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble.

⁹I will keep watch for You, O my strength, because You, O God, are my fortress.

¹⁰My God of loving devotion will come to meet me; God will let me stare down my foes.

¹For the choirmaster. Of David the servant of the Lord, who sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love You, O Lord, my strength.