1 - ?For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.?
My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent,
2 - for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 - With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause.
4 - In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.
5 - They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.
6 - Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy; let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 - When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him.
8 - May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.
9 - May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 - May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven
11 - May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
12 - May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.
13 - May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation.
14 - May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
15 - May their sins always remain before the Lord, that he may blot out their name from the earth.
16 - For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted.
17 - He loved to pronounce a curse - may it come back on him. He found no pleasure in blessing - may it be far from him.
18 - He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil.
19 - May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him.
20 - May this be the Lord's payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me.
21 - But you, Sovereign Lord, help me for your name's sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
22 - For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
23 - I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 - My knees give way from fasting; my body is thin and gaunt.
25 - I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 - Help me, Lord my God; save me according to your unfailing love.
27 - Let them know that it is your hand, that you, Lord, have done it.
28 - While they curse, may you bless; may those who attack me be put to shame, but may your servant rejoice.
29 - May my accusers be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.
30 - With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.
31 - For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them.