(A special psalm by David for the music leader. To the tune “Don't Destroy.” )
A Prayer When All Goes Wrong
1 Do you mighty people talk
only to oppose justice?
Don't you ever judge fairly?
2 You are always planning evil,
and you are brutal.
3 You have done wrong and lied
from the day you were born.
4 Your words spread poison
like the bite of a cobra
5 that refuses to listen
to the snake charmer.
6 My enemies are fierce
as lions, Lord God!
Shatter their teeth.
Snatch out their fangs.
7 Make them disappear
like leaking water,
and make their arrows miss.
8 Let them dry up like snails
or be like a child that dies
before seeing the sun.
9 Wipe them out quicker
than a pot can be heated
by setting thorns on fire.
10 Good people will be glad
when they see the wicked
getting what they deserve,
and they will wash their feet
in their enemies' blood.
11 Everyone will say, “It's true!
Good people are rewarded.
God does indeed rule the earth
with justice.”
1 To him that excelleth. Destroy not. A Psalme of David on Michtam. Is it true? O Congregation, speake ye iustly? O sonnes of men, iudge ye vprightly? 2 Yea, rather ye imagine mischiefe in your heart: your hands execute crueltie vpon the earth. 3 The wicked are strangers from ye wombe: euen from the belly haue they erred, and speake lyes. 4 Their poyson is euen like the poyson of a serpent: like ye deafe adder that stoppeth his eare. 5 Which heareth not the voyce of the inchanter, though he be most expert in charming. 6 Breake their teeth, O God, in their mouthes: breake the iawes of the yong lions, O Lord. 7 Let them melt like the waters, let them passe away: when hee shooteth his arrowes, let them be as broken. 8 Let them consume like a snayle that melteth, and like the vntimely fruite of a woman, that hath not seene the sunne. 9 As raw flesh before your pots feele the fire of thornes: so let him cary them away as with a whirlewinde in his wrath. 10 The righteous shall reioyce when he seeeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feete in the blood of the wicked. 11 And men shall say, Verily there is fruite for the righteous: doutlesse there is a God that iudgeth in the earth.