< Psalms 31 >
1 Unto the end. A Psalm of David according to an ecstasy. In you, Lord, I have hoped; let me never be confounded. In your justice, deliver me.
2 Incline your ear to me. Hasten to rescue me. Be for me a protector God and a house of refuge, so as to accomplish my salvation.
3 For you are my strength and my refuge; and for the sake of your name, you will lead me and nourish me.
4 You will lead me out of this snare, which they have hidden for me. For you are my protector.
5 Into your hands, I commend my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth.
6 You have hated those who practice emptiness to no purpose. But I have hoped in the Lord.
7 I will exult and rejoice in your mercy. For you have looked upon my humility; you have saved my soul from needfulness.
8 And you have not enclosed me in the hands of the enemy. You have set my feet in a spacious place.
9 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am troubled. My eye has been disturbed by wrath, along with my soul and my gut.
10 For my life has fallen into sorrow, and my years into sighing. My virtue has been weakened in poverty, and my bones have been disturbed.
11 I have become a disgrace among all my enemies, and even more so to my neighbors, and a dread to my acquaintances. Those who catch sight of me, flee away from me.
12 I have become forgotten, like one dead to the heart. I have become like a damaged utensil.
13 For I have heard the harsh criticism of many who linger in the area. While assembled together against me in that place, they deliberated on how to take away my life.
14 But I have hoped in you, O Lord. I said, “You are my God.”
15 My fate is in your hands. Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who are persecuting me.
16 Shine your face upon your servant. Save me in your mercy.
17 Do not let me be confounded, Lord, for I have called upon you. Let the impious be ashamed and be drawn down into Hell. (Sheol )
18 May deceitful lips be silenced: those that speak iniquity against the just, in arrogance and in abusiveness.
19 How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you keep hidden for those who fear you, which you have perfected for those who hope in you, in the sight of the sons of men.
20 You hide them in the concealment of your face, from the disturbance of men. You protect them in your tabernacle, from the contradiction of tongues.
21 Blessed is the Lord. For he has shown his wonderful mercy to me, in a fortified city.
22 But I said in the excess of my mind: “I have been cast away from the glance of your eyes.” And so, you heeded the voice of my prayer, while I was still crying out to you.
23 Love the Lord, all you his saints. For the Lord will require truth, and he will abundantly repay those who act with arrogance.
24 Act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, all you who hope in the Lord.