The Waters Are up to My Neck

1(68:1) For the end, a Psalm of David, for alternate strains. Save me, O God; for the waters have come in to my soul.

2(68:2) I am stuck fast in deep mire, and there is no standing: I am come in to the depths of the sea, and a storm has overwhelmed me.

3(68:3) I am weary of crying, my throat has become hoarse; mine eyes have failed by my waiting on my God.

4(68:4) They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: my enemies that persecute me unrighteously are strengthened: then I restored that which I took not away.

5(68:5) O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my transgressions are not hidden from thee.

6(68:6) Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord of hosts, be ashamed on my account: let not them that seek thee, be ashamed on my account, O God of Israel.

7(68:7) For I have suffered reproach for thy sake; shame has covered my face.

8(68:8) I became strange to my brethren, and a stranger to my mother's children.

9(68:9) For the zeal of thine house has eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

10(68:10) And I bowed down my soul with fasting, and that was made my reproach.

11(68:11) And I put on sackcloth for my covering; and I became a proverb to them.

12(68:12) They that sit in the gate talked against me, and they that drank wine sang against me.

13(68:13) But I will cry to thee, O Lord, in my prayer; O God, it is a propitious time: in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

14(68:14) Save me from the mire, that I stick not in it: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and from the deep waters.

15(68:15) Let not the waterflood drown me, nor let the deep swallow me up; neither let the well shut its mouth upon me.

16(68:16) Hear me, O Lord; for thy mercy is good: according to the multitude of thy compassions look upon me.

17(68:17) And turn not away thy face from thy servant; for I am afflicted: hear me speedily.

18(68:18) Draw nigh to my soul and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

19(68:19) For thou knowest my reproach, and my shame, and my confusion; all that afflict me are before thee.

20(68:20) My soul has waited for reproach and misery; and I waited for one to grieve with me, but there was none; and for one to comfort me, but I found none.

21(68:21) They gave me also gall for my food, and made me drink vinegar for my thirst.

22(68:22) Let their table before them be for a snare, and for a recompense, and for a stumbling-block.

23(68:23) Let their eyes be darkened that they should not see; and bow down their back continually.

24(68:24) Pour out thy wrath upon them, and let the fury of thine anger take hold on them.

25(68:25) Let their habitation be made desolate; and let there be no inhabitant in their tents:

26(68:26) Because they persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.

27(68:27) Add iniquity to their iniquity; and let them not come into thy righteousness.

28(68:28) Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the righteous.

29(68:29) I am poor and sorrowful; but the salvation of thy countenance has helped me.

30(68:30) I will praise the name of my God with a song, I will magnify him with praise;

31(68:31) and this shall please God more than a young calf having horns and hoofs.

32(68:32) Let the poor see and rejoice; seek the Lord diligently, and ye shall live.

33(68:33) For the Lord hears the poor, and does not set at nought his fettered ones.

34(68:34) Let the heavens and the earth raise him, the sea, and all things moving in them.

35(68:35) For God will save Sion, and the cities of Judea shall be built; and men shall dwell there, and inherit it.

36(68:36) And the seed of his servants shall possess it, and they that love his name shall dwell therein.