Song of the Slandered

1{108:1}Unto the end, a psalm for David.

2{108:2}O God, be not thou silent in my praise: for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me.

3{108:3}They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred; and have fought against me without cause.

4{108:4}Instead of making me a return of love, they detracted me: but I gave myself to prayer.

5{108:5}And they repaid me evil for good: and hatred for my love.

6{108:6}Set thou the sinner over him: and may the devil stand at his right hand.

7{108:7}When he is judged, may he go out condemned; and may his prayer be turned to sin.

8{108:8}May his days be few: and his bishopric let another take.

9{108:9}May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

10{108:10}Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg; and let them be cast out of their dwellings.

11{108:11}May the usurer search all his substance: and let strangers plunder his labours.

12{108:12}May there be none to help him: nor none to pity his fatherless offspring.

13{108:13}May his posterity be cut off; in one generation may his name be blotted out.

14{108:14}May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15{108:15}May they be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from the earth:

16{108:16}because he remembered not to shew mercy,

17{108:17}But persecuted the poor man and the beggar; and the broken in heart, to put him to death.

18{108:18}And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him: and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him. And he put on cursing, like a garment: and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones.

19{108:19}May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle with which he is girded continually.

20{108:20}This is the work of them who detract me before the Lord; and who speak evils against my soul.

21{108:21}But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deliver me,

22{108:22}For I am poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.

23{108:23}I am taken away like the shadow when it declineth: and I am shaken off as locusts.

24{108:24}My knees are weakened through fasting: and my flesh is changed for oil.

25{108:25}And I am become a reproach to them: they saw me and they shaked their heads.

26{108:26}Help me, O Lord my God; save me; according to thy mercy.

27{108:27}And let them know that this is thy hand: and that thou, O Lord, hast done it.

28{108:28}They will curse and thou wilt bless: let them that rise up against me be confounded: but thy servant shall rejoice.

29{108:29}Let them that detract me be clothed with shame: and let them be covered with their confusion as with a double cloak.

30{108:30}I will give great thanks to the Lord with my mouth: and in the midst of many I will praise him.

31{108:31}Because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor, to save my soul from persecutors.