Psalm 35 Judica, Domine
1 Fight those who fight me, O LORD; *
attack those who are at-tack-ing me.
2 Take up shield and ar-mor *
and rise up to help me.
3 Draw the sword and bar the way against those who pur-sue me; *
say to my soul, “I am your sal-va-tion.”
4 Let those who seek after my life be shamed and hum-bled; *
let those who plot my ruin fall back and be dis-mayed.
5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, *
and let the angel of the LORD drive them a-way.
6 Let their way be dark and slip-pery, *
and let the angel of the LORD pur-sue them.
7 For they have secretly spread a net for me without a cause; *
without a cause they have dug a pit to take me a-live.
8 Let ruin come upon them una-wares; *
let them be caught in the net they hid; let them fall into the pit they dug.
9 Then I will be joyful in the LORD; *
I will glory in her vic-tory.
10 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.”
11 Malicious witnesses rise up a-gainst me; *
they charge me with matters I know nothing a-bout.
12 They pay me evil in exchange for good; *
my soul is full of de-spair.
13 But when they were sick I dressed in sack-cloth *
and humbled my-self by fast-ing.
14 I prayed with my whole heart, as one would for a friend or a sis-ter; *
I behaved like one who mourns for her mother, bowed down and grie-ving.
15 But when I stumbled, they were glad and gathered together; they gathered a-gainst me; *
strangers whom I did not know tore me to pieces and would not stop.
16 They put me to the test and mocked me; *
they gnashed at me with their teeth.
17 O Lord, how long will you look on? *
rescue me from the roaring beasts, and my life
from the young li-ons.
18 I will give you thanks in the great congre-ga-tion; *
I will praise you in the migh-ty throng.
19 Do not let my treacherous foes rejoice o–ver me, *
nor let those who hate me without a cause wink at each o-ther.
20 For they do not plan for peace, *
but invent deceitful schemes against the quiet in the land.
21 They opened their mouths at me and said, *
“Aha! we saw it with our own eyes.”
22 You saw it, O LORD; do not be si-lent; *
O Lord, be not far from me.
23 Awake, arise, to my cause! *
to my defense, my God and my Lord!
24 Give me justice, O LORD my God, according to your right-eousness; *
do not let them tri-umph o-ver me.
25 Do not let them say in their hearts, “Aha! just what we want!” *
Do not let them say, “We have swallowed her up.”
26 Let all who rejoice at my ruin be ashamed and dis-graced; *
let those who boast against me be clothed with dis-may and shame.
27 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 her ser-vant.”
28 And my tongue shall be talking of your right-eousness *
and of your praise all the day long.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spir-it: *
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ev-er. A-men.