Psalm 35

Fight those who fight me, O LORD ;

attack those who are attacking me.

Take up shield and armor

and rise up to help me.

Draw the sword and bar the way against those who pursue me;

say to my soul, "I am your salvation."

Let those who seek after my life be shamed and humbled;

let those who plot my ruin fall back and be dismayed.

Let them be like chaff before the wind,

and let the angel of the LORD drive them away.

Let their way be dark and slippery,

and let the angel of the LORD pursue them.

For they have secretly spread a net for me without a cause;

without a cause they have dug a pit to take me alive.

Let ruin come upon them unawares;

let them be caught in the net they hid; let them fall into the pit they dug.

Then I will be joyful in the LORD ;

I will glory in his victory.

My very bones will say, "LORD , who is like you?

You deliver the poor from those who are too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them."

Malicious witnesses rise up against me;

they charge me with matters I know nothing about.

They pay me evil in exchange for good;

my soul is full of despair.

But when they were sick I dressed in sack-cloth

and humbled myself by fasting.

I prayed with my whole heart, as one would for a friend or a brother;

I behaved like one who mourns for his mother, bowed down and grieving.

But when I stumbled, they were glad and gathered together; they gathered against me;

strangers whom I did not know tore me to pieces and would not stop.

They put me to the test and mocked me;

they gnashed at me with their teeth.

O Lord, how long will you look on?

rescue me from the roaring beasts, and my life from the young lions.

I will give you thanks in the great congregation;

I will praise you in the mighty throng.

Do not let my treacherous foes rejoice over me,

nor let those who hate me without a cause wink at each other.

For they do not plan for peace,

but invent deceitful schemes against the quiet in the land.

They opened their mouths at me and said,

"Aha! we saw it with our own eyes."

You saw it, O LORD ; do not be silent;

O Lord, be not far from me.

Awake, arise, to my cause!

to my defense, my God and my Lord!

Give me justice, O LORD my God, according to your righteousness;

do not let them triumph over me.

Do not let them say in their hearts, "Aha! just what we want!"

Do not let them say, "We have swallowed him up."

Let all who rejoice at my ruin be ashamed and disgraced;

let those who boast against me be clothed with dismay and shame.

Let those who favor my cause sing out with joy and be glad;

let them say always, "Great is the LORD , who desires the prosperity of his servant."

And my tongue shall be talking of your righteousness

and of your praise all the day long.