To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

¹ Do not keep silent,
O God of my praise!
² For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful
Have opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
³ They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me without a cause.
⁴ In return for my love they are my accusers,
But I give myself to prayer.
⁵ Thus they have rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.

⁶ Set a wicked man over him,
And let an accuser⁷ When he is judged, let him be found guilty,
And let his prayer become sin.
⁸ Let his days be few,
And let another take his office.
⁹ Let his children be fatherless,
And his wife a widow.
¹⁰ Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg;
Let them seek their bread¹¹ Let the creditor seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder his labor.
¹² Let there be none to extend mercy to him,
Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
¹³ Let his posterity be cut off,
And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

¹⁴ Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD,
And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
¹⁵ Let them be continually before the LORD,
That He may cut off the memory of them from the earth;
¹⁶ Because he did not remember to show mercy,
But persecuted the poor and needy man,
That he might even slay the broken in heart.
¹⁷ As he loved cursing, so let it come to him;
As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.
¹⁸ As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment,
So let it enter his body like water,
And like oil into his bones.
¹⁹ Let it be to him like the garment which covers him,
And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.
²⁰ Let this be the LORD’s reward to my accusers,
And to those who speak evil against my person.

²¹ But You, O GOD the Lord,
Deal with me for Your name’s sake;
Because Your mercy is good, deliver me.
²² For I am poor and needy,
And my heart is wounded within me.
²³ I am gone like a shadow when it lengthens;
I am shaken off like a locust.
²⁴ My knees are weak through fasting,
And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.
²⁵ I also have become a reproach to them;
When they look at me, they shake their heads.

²⁶ Help me, O LORD my God!
Oh, save me according to Your mercy,
²⁷ That they may know that this is Your hand—
That You, LORD, have done it!
²⁸ Let them curse, but You bless;
When they arise, let them be ashamed,
But let Your servant rejoice.
²⁹ Let my accusers be clothed with shame,
And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle.

³⁰ I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth;
Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.
³¹ For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor,
To save him from those who condemn him.