A Prayer for Deliverance
71 In you, Lord, I take refuge;
let me never be humiliated.
2 Rescue and deliver me,[a] because you are righteous.
Turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my sheltering refuge where I may go continuously;
command my deliverance
for you are my rock and fortress.
4 My God, deliver me from the power of the wicked
and the grasp of ruthless practicers of evil.
5 For you are my hope, Lord God,
my security since I was young.
6 I depended on you since birth,[b]
when you brought me[c] from my mother’s womb;
I praise you continuously.
7 I have become an example to many
that you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise
and your splendor daily.
9 Don’t throw me away when I am old;
do not abandon me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies talk against me;
those who seek to kill me plot together
11 and say, “God has abandoned him.
Run after him and seize him,
because there’s no deliverer.”
12 God, do not be distant from me.
My God, come quickly to help me.
13 Let my adversaries be ashamed and consumed;[d]
let those who seek my destruction
be covered with scorn and disgrace.
14 As for me, I will hope continuously
and will praise you more and more.
15 I[e] will declare your righteousness
and your salvation every day,
though I do not fully understand
what the outcome will be.[f]
16 Lord God, I will come in the power of[g] your mighty acts,
remembering your righteousness—yours alone.
17 God, you taught me from my youth,
so I am still declaring your awesome deeds.
18 Also, when I reach old age and have gray hair,
God, do not forsake me,
until I have declared your power
to this generation
and your might to the next one.
19 Your many righteous deeds,[h] God, are great,
20 God, who can compare to you,
who caused me to experience[i] troubles
that were numerous and disastrous?
You will return to revive me
and lift me up from the depths of the earth.
21 You will increase my honor
and comfort me once again.
22 I also will praise you with the harp;
because of your faithfulness, my God,
I will praise you with the lyre—
Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you,
whose life you have redeemed.
24 Moreover, my tongue will speak all day about your justice;
for those who seek my destruction will be utterly humiliated.
Footnotes
- Psalm 71:2 So LXX DSS 4QPsa; MT reads In your righteousness you are delivering me and rescuing me
- Psalm 71:6 Lit. you from the womb
- Psalm 71:6 So MT; LXX reads birth, it was you who sheltered me; DSS 4QPsa reads birth, you are my protector
- Psalm 71:13 So MT; LXX reads and let them expire; DSS 4QPsa reads and let them be consumed
- Psalm 71:15 Lit. My mouth
- Psalm 71:15 Lit. understand the sum
- Psalm 71:16 The Heb. lacks the power of
- Psalm 71:19 Lit. righteous deeds as far as the height
- Psalm 71:20 Lit. see