For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1
Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men;
protect me from men of violence,
2
who devise evil plans in their heads and stir up war every day.
3
They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent's;
the poison of vipers is on their lips. Selah
4
Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked;
protect me from men of violence who plan to trip my feet.
5
Proud men have hidden a snare for me;
they have spread out the cords of their net
and have set traps forme along my path. Selah
6
O LORD, I say to you, "You are my God."
Hear, O LORD, my cry for mercy.
7
O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer,
who shields my head in the day of bsttle -
8
do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD;
do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud. Selah
9
Let the heads of those who surround me be covered
with the trouble their lips have caused.
10
Let burning coals fall upon them;
may they be thrown into the fire,
into miry pits, never to rise.
11
Let slanderers not be established in the land;
may disaster hunt down men of violence.
12
I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.
13
Surely the righteous will praise your name
and the upright will live before you.
