Cast Your Cares on the Lord

(2 Samuel 17:15-29)

1{54:1}Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David. [2] Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:

2{54:3}Be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,

3{54:4}At the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.

4{54:5}My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.

5{54:6}Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.

6{54:7}And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?

7{54:8}Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.

8{54:9}I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.

9{54:10}Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.

10{54:11}Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,

11{54:12}And injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.

12{54:13}For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden my self from him.

13{54:14}But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,

14{54:15}Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.

15{54:16}Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.

16{54:17}But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.

17{54:18}Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.

18{54:19}He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.

19{54:20}God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:

20{54:21}He hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,

21{54:22}They are divided by the wrath of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.

22{54:23}Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.

23{54:24}But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.