Psalm 7

¹O Lord my God, I take refuge in you; *save and deliver me from all who pursue me;

²Lest like a lion they tear me in pieces *and snatch me away with none to deliver me.

³O Lord my God, if I have done these things: *if there is any wickedness in my hands,

⁴If I have repaid my friend with evil, *or plundered him who without cause is my enemy;

⁵Then let my enemy pursue and overtake me, *trample my life into the ground, and lay my honor in the dust.

⁶Stand up, O Lord, in your wrath; *rise up against the fury of my enemies.

⁷Awake, O my God, decree justice; *let the assembly of the peoples gather round you.

⁸Be seated on your lofty throne, O Most High; *O Lord, judge the nations.

⁹Give judgment for me according to my righteousness, O Lord, *and according to my innocence, O Most High.

¹⁰Let the malice of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; *for you test the mind and heart, O righteous God.

¹¹God is my shield and defense; *he is the savior of the true in heart.

¹²God is a righteous judge; *God sits in judgment every day.

¹³If they will not repent, God will whet his sword; *he will bend his bow and make it ready.

¹⁴He has prepared his weapons of death; *he makes his arrows shafts of fire.

¹⁵Look at those who are in labor with wickedness, *who conceive evil, and give birth to a lie.

¹⁶They dig a pit and make it deep *and fall into the hole that they have made.

¹⁷Their malice turns back upon their own head; *their violence falls on their own scalp.

¹⁸I will bear witness that the Lord is righteous; *I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High.