Psalm 69
Common Metre (8,6,8,6)
Suggested Tunes:
(vv.1-29) 42 Coleshill, 135 Stornoway
(vv.30-36) 34 Bishopthorpe, 118 St Leonard
1 Save me, O God, because the floods
do so environ me,
That ev’n unto my very soul
come in the waters be.
2 I downward in deep mire do sink,
where standing there is none:
I am into deep waters come,
where floods have o’er me gone.
3 I weary with my crying am,
my throat is also dry’d;
Mine eyes do fail, while for my God
I waiting do abide.
4 Those men that do without a cause
bear hatred unto me,
Than are the hairs upon my head
in number more they be:
They that would me destroy, and are
mine en’mies wrongfully,
Are mighty: so what I took not,
to render forc’d was I.
5 Lord, thou my folly know’st, my sins
not cover’d are from thee.
6 Let none that wait on thee be sham’d,
Lord God of hosts, for me.
O Lord, the God of Israel,
let none, who search do make,
And seek thee, be at any time
confounded for my sake.
7 For I have borne reproach for thee,
my face is hid with shame.
8 To brethren strange, to mother’s sons
an alien I became.
9 Because the zeal did eat me up,
which to thine house I bear;
And the reproaches cast at thee,
upon me fallen are.
10 My tears and fasts, t’ afflict my soul,
were turned to my shame.
11 When sackcloth I did wear, to them
a proverb I became.
12 The men that in the gate do sit
against me evil spake;
They also that vile drunkards were
of me their song did make.
13 But, in an acceptable time,
my pray’r, Lord, is to thee:
In truth of thy salvation, Lord,
and mercy great, hear me.
14 Deliver me out of the mire,
from sinking do me keep;
Free me from those that do me hate,
and from the waters deep.
15 Let not the flood on me prevail,
whose water overflows;
Nor deep me swallow, nor the pit
her mouth upon me close.
16 Hear me, O Lord, because thy love
and kindness is most good;
Turn unto me, according to
thy mercies’ multitude.
17 Nor from thy servant hide thy face:
I’m troubled, soon attend.
18 Draw near my soul, and it redeem;
me from my foes defend.
19 To thee is my reproach well known,
my shame, and my disgrace:
Those that mine adversaries be
are all before thy face.
20 Reproach hath broke my heart; I’m full
of grief: I look’d for one
To pity me, but none I found;
comforters found I none.
21 They also bitter gall did give
unto me for my meat:
They gave me vinegar to drink,
when as my thirst was great.
22 Before them let their table prove
a snare; and do thou make
Their welfare and prosperity
a trap themselves to take.
23 Let thou their eyes so darken’d be,
that sight may them forsake;
And let their loins be made by thee
continually to shake.
24 Thy fury pour thou out on them,
and indignation;
And let thy wrathful anger, Lord,
fast hold take them upon.
25 All waste and desolate let be
their habitation;
And in their tabernacles all
inhabitants be none.
26 Because him they do persecute,
whom thou didst smite before;
They talk unto the grief of those
whom thou hast wounded sore.
27 Add thou iniquity unto
their former wickedness;
And do not let them come at all
into thy righteousness.
28 Out of the book of life let them
be raz’d and blotted quite;
Among the just and righteous
let not their names be writ.
29 But now become exceeding poor
and sorrowful am I:
By thy salvation, O my God,
let me be set on high. |
Coleshill
Stornoway
|