Psalm 55

¹God, listen to my prayer;

don’t avoid my request!

²Pay attention! Answer me!

I can’t sit still while complaining.

I’m beside myself

⁴My heart pounds in my chest

because death’s terrors have reached me.

⁵Fear and trembling have come upon me;

I’m shaking all over.

⁶I say to myself,

I wish I had wings like a dove!

I’d fly away and rest.

⁷I’d run so far away!

I’d live in the desert. Selah

⁸I’d hurry to my hideout,

far from the rushing wind and storm.

⁹Baffle them, my Lord!

Confuse their language

because I see violence and conflict in the city.

¹⁰Day and night they make their rounds on its walls,

and evil and misery live inside it.

¹¹Disaster lives inside it;

oppression and fraud never leave the town square.

¹²It’s not an enemy that is insulting me—

I could handle that.

It’s not someone who hates me

who is exalted over me—

I could hide from them.

¹³No. It’s you, my equal,

my close companion, my good friend!

¹⁴It was so pleasant when

together we entered God’s house with the crowd.

¹⁵Let death devastate my enemies;

let them go to the grave alive

¹⁶But I call out to God,

and the LORD will rescue me.

¹⁷At evening, morning, and midday

I complain and moan

so that God will hear my voice.

¹⁸He saves me, unharmed, from my struggle,[#55.18 Or my life or soul]

though there are many who are out to get me.

¹⁹God, who is enthroned from ancient days,

will hear and humble them Selah

²⁰My friend attacked his allies,

breaking his covenant.

²¹Though his talk is smoother than butter,

though his words are more silky than oil,

²²“Cast your burden on the LORD —

he will support you!

God will never let the righteous be shaken!”

²³But you, God, bring the wicked

down to the deepest pit.

Let bloodthirsty and treacherous people

not live out even half their days.