11 bMalicious1 witnesses rise up;
they ask me of things that I do not know.
12 They crepay me evil for good;
my soul is bereft.2
13 But I, dwhen they were sick—
I wore sackcloth;
I afflicted myself with efasting;
I prayed with head bowed3 on my chest.
14 I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;
as one who laments his mother,
I bowed down in mourning.
15 But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered;
they gathered together against me;
wretches whom I did not know
tore at me without ceasing;
16 like profane mockers at a feast,4
they gnash at me with their teeth.
O Lord, Be Gracious to Me
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1 lBlessed is the one who considers the poor!1
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
2 the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not mgive him up to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.2
4 As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
nheal me,3 for oI have sinned against you!”
5 My enemies say of me in malice,
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words,
while his heart gathers iniquity;
when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.4
8 They say, “A deadly thing is poured out5 on him;
he will not rise again from where he lies.”
9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
pwho ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
10 But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them!
11 By this I know that you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.
13 qBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
rAmen and Amen.
