Prayer for Deliverance and Confidence in God

¹ For the music director, according to The Silent Dove of Distant Lands. Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines seized him in Gath.¹ Be gracious to me, O God, because humankind has trampled me; fighting all the day he oppresses me.

1. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one

² My enemies¹ trample all day, because many are attacking me proudly.

1. Or “lurking foes”

³ ⌞When⌟¹ I fear, I trust you.

1. Literally “The day”

⁴ God, whose word I praise, God I trust; I do not fear. What can mere flesh do to me?

⁵ All day they twist my words; all their thoughts are against me for evil.

⁶ They attack,¹ they hide, they watch my ⌞steps⌟,² as they lie in wait for my life.

1. Or “they stir up strife”
2. Literally “heels”

⁷ Because of iniquity will they escape? In anger cast down the peoples, O God.

⁸ You have kept count of my wonderings. Put my tears in your bottle; are they not in your book?

⁹ Then my enemies will turn back ⌞when⌟¹ I call.² This I know because³ God is for me.

1. Literally “in the day”
2. i.e., call on God
3. Or “that”

¹⁰ God, whose word I praise, Yahweh, whose word I praise,

¹¹ God I trust; I do not fear. What can mere humankind do to me?

¹² My vows to you, O God, are binding upon me. I will pay thank offerings to you,

¹³ because you have delivered my soul from death. Have you not kept my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?