Psalm 35

¹Fight those who fight me, O Lord; *attack those who are attacking me.

²Take up shield and armor *and rise up to help me.

³Draw the sword and bar the way against those who pursue me; *say to my soul, “I am your salvation.”

⁴Let those who seek after my life be shamed and humbled; *let those who plot my ruin fall back and be dismayed.

⁵Let them be like chaff before the wind, *and let the angel of the Lord drive them away.

⁶Let their way be dark and slippery, *and let the angel of the Lord pursue them.

⁷For they have secretly spread a net for me without a cause; *without a cause they have dug a pit to take me alive.

⁸Let ruin come upon them unawares; *let them be caught in the net they hid; let them fall into the pit they dug.

⁹Then I will be joyful in the Lord; *I will glory in his victory.

¹⁰My very bones will say, “Lord, who is like you? *You deliver the poor from those who are too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them.”

¹¹Malicious witnesses rise up against me; *they charge me with matters I know nothing about.

¹²They pay me evil in exchange for good; *my soul is full of despair.

¹³But when they were sick I dressed in sack-cloth *and humbled myself by fasting.

¹⁴I prayed with my whole heart, as one would for a friend or a brother; *I behaved like one who mourns for his mother, bowed down and grieving.

¹⁵But when I stumbled, they were glad and gathered together; they gathered against me; *strangers whom I did not know tore me to pieces and would not stop.

¹⁶They put me to the test and mocked me; *they gnashed at me with their teeth.

¹⁷O Lord, how long will you look on? *rescue me from the roaring beasts, and my life from the young lions.

¹⁸I will give you thanks in the great congregation; *I will praise you in the mighty throng.

¹⁹Do not let my treacherous foes rejoice over me, *nor let those who hate me without a cause wink at each other.

²⁰For they do not plan for peace, *but invent deceitful schemes against the quiet in the land.

²¹They opened their mouths at me and said, *“Aha! we saw it with our own eyes.”

²²You saw it, O Lord; do not be silent; *O Lord, be not far from me.

²³Awake, arise, to my cause! *to my defense, my God and my Lord!

²⁴Give me justice, O Lord my God, according to your righteousness; *do not let them triumph over me.

²⁵Do not let them say in their hearts, “Aha! just what we want!” *Do not let them say, “We have swallowed him up.”

²⁶Let all who rejoice at my ruin be ashamed and disgraced; *let those who boast against me be clothed with dismay and shame.

²⁷Let those who favor my cause sing out with joy and be glad; *let them say always, “Great is the Lord, who desires the prosperity of his servant.”

²⁸And my tongue shall be talking of your righteousness *and of your praise all the day long.