The Waters Are up to My Neck

1Unto the end. For those who will be changed: of David. Save me, O God, for the waters have entered, even to my soul.

2I have become stuck in a deep quagmire, and there is no firm footing. I have arrived at the height of the sea, and a tempest has overwhelmed me.

3I have endured hardships, while crying out. My jaws have become hoarse; my eyes have failed. Meanwhile, I hope in my God.

4Those who hate me without cause have been multiplied beyond the hairs of my head. My enemies, who persecuted me unjustly, have been strengthened. Then I was required to pay for what I did not take.

5O God, you know my foolishness, and my offenses have not been hidden from you.

6Let those who wait for you, O Lord, the Lord of hosts, not be shamed in me. Let those who seek you, O God of Israel, not be confounded over me.

7For because of you, I have endured reproach; confusion has covered my face.

8I have become a stranger to my brothers and a sojourner to the sons of my mother.

9For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen upon me.

10And I covered my soul with fasting, and it has become a reproach to me.

11And I put on a haircloth as my garment, and I became a parable to them.

12Those who sat at the gate spoke against me, and those who drank wine made me their song.

13But as for me, truly, my prayer is to you, O Lord. This time has pleased you well, O God. In the multitude of your mercy, in the truth of your salvation, hear me.

14Rescue me from the quagmire, so that I may not become trapped. Free me from those who hate me and from deep waters.

15Do not allow the tempest of water to submerge me, nor the deep to absorb me. And do not allow the well to close in on me.

16Hear me, O Lord, for your mercy is kind. Look upon me, according to the fullness of your compassion.

17And do not turn your face away from your servant, for I am in trouble: heed me quickly.

18Attend to my soul, and free it. Rescue me, because of my enemies.

19You know my reproach, and my confusion, and my reverence.

20All those who trouble me are in your sight; my heart has anticipated reproach and misery. And I sought for one who might grieve together with me, but there was no one, and for one who might console me, and I found no one.

21And they gave me gall for my food. And in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

22Let their table be a snare before them, and a retribution, and a scandal.

23Let their eyes be darkened, so that they may not see, and may their back always be crooked.

24Pour out your indignation upon them, and may the fury of your anger take hold of them.

25May their dwelling place be deserted, and may there be no one who dwells in their tabernacles.

26For they persecuted whomever you struck. And they have added to the grief of my wounds.

27Assign an iniquity upon their iniquity, and may they not enter into your justice.

28Delete them from the Book of the Living, and let them not be written down with the just.

29I am poor and sorrowful, but your salvation, O God, has taken me up.

30I will praise the name of God with a canticle, and I will magnify him with praise.

31And it will please God more than a new calf producing horns and hoofs.

32Let the poor see and rejoice. Seek God, and your soul will live.

33For the Lord has heard the poor, and he has not despised his prisoners.

34Let the heavens and the earth praise him: the sea, and everything that crawls in it.

35For God will save Zion, and the cities of Judah will be built up. And they will dwell there, and they will acquire it by inheritance.

36And the offspring of his servants will possess it; and those who love his name will dwell in it.