Chapter 54

Unto the end. In verses, the understanding of David.

Listen to my prayer, O God, and despise not my supplication.

Be attentive to me, and heed me. I have been grieved in my training, and I have been disturbed

at the voice of the adversary and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have diverted iniquities toward me, and they have been harassing me with rage.

My heart has become disturbed within me, and the dread of death has fallen over me.

Fear and trembling have overwhelmed me, and darkness has buried me.

And I said, “Who will give me wings like the dove, so that I may fly away and take rest?”

Behold, I have fled far away, and I linger in solitude.

I waited for him who saved me from a weak-minded spirit and from a tempest.

Cast them down, O Lord, and divide their tongues. For I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.

Day and night, iniquity will surround it upon its walls, and hardship is in its midst,

with injustice. And usury and deceit have not fallen away from its streets.

For if my enemy had spoken evil about me, certainly, I would have sustained it. And if he who hated me had been speaking great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.

Truly, you are a man of one mind: my leader and my acquaintance,

who took sweet food together with me. In the house of God, we walked side-by-side.

Let death come upon them, and let them descend alive into Hellfire. For there is wickedness in their dwellings, in their midst.

But I have cried out to God, and the Lord will save me.

Evening and morning and midday, I will discourse and announce, and he will heed my voice.

He will redeem my soul in peace from those who draw near to me. For, among the many, they were with me.

God will hear, and He who is before time will humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God.

He has stretched forth his hand in retribution. They have contaminated his covenant.

They were divided by the wrath of his countenance, and his heart has drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and they are arrows.

Cast your cares upon the Lord, and he will nurture you. He will not allow the just to be tossed about forever.

Truly, O God, you will lead them away into the well of death. Bloody and deceitful men will not divide their days in half. But I will hope in you, O Lord.