Psalms

¹ God, God, save me! I'm in over my head,

² I'm going down for the third time.

³ Bleary-eyed from searching the sky for God.

⁴ Sneaks and liars are out to knife me in the back. What I never stole Must I now give back?

⁵ My life's a wide-open book before you.

⁶ Be discouraged by what happens to me, Dear Lord! God of the armies! Don't let those out looking for you Come to a dead end by following me— Please, dear God of Israel!

⁷ I walk around ashamed to show my face.

⁸ My family treats me like an unwanted guest.

⁹ Because I'm madly in love with you, They blame me for everything they dislike about you.

¹⁰ All it got me was more contempt.

¹¹ They treated me like a clown.

¹² Make up drinking songs about me.

¹³ God, it's time for a break! God, answer in love! Answer with your sure salvation!

¹⁴ Don't let me go under for good, Pull me out of the clutch of the enemy; This whirlpool is sucking me down.

¹⁵ Swallow me, its jaws clenched around me.

¹⁶ Let me see your great mercy full-face.

¹⁷ I'm in trouble. Answer right now!

¹⁸ Rescue me from this deathtrap.

¹⁹ Pin on me the donkey's ears, the dunce's cap.

²⁰ Flat on my face, reduced to a nothing. I looked in vain for one friendly face. Not one. I couldn't find one shoulder to cry on.

²¹ Vinegar in my drink.

²² May their best friends be trappers who'll skin them alive.

²³ Give them the shakes from morning to night.

²⁴ Blast them with your red-hot anger.

²⁵ Leave them desolate with nobody at home.

²⁶ Made up stories about anyone wounded by God.

²⁷ Don't let them off the hook.

²⁸ No rock-carved honor for them among the righteous.

²⁹ Give me space for healing, and mountain air.

³⁰ Let me tell his greatness in a prayer of thanks.

³¹ Far better than blue-ribbon bulls.

³² Oh, you God-seekers, take heart!

³³ He doesn't walk out on the wretched.

³⁴ Also ocean and all things that swim in it.

³⁵ Rebuilding the wrecked towns of Judah. Guess who will live there— The proud owners of the land?

³⁶ The lovers of his name will live in it.