Prayer for Deliverance from Persecutors

¹ Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry;

    give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.

² From you let my vindication come;

    let your eyes see the right.

 

³ If you try my heart, if you visit me by night,

    if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me;

    my mouth does not transgress.

⁴ As for what others do, by the word of your lips

    I have avoided the ways of the violent.

⁵ My steps have held fast to your paths;

    my feet have not slipped.

 

⁶ I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;

    incline your ear to me, hear my words.

⁷ Wondrously show your steadfast love,

    O savior of those who seek refuge

    from their adversaries at your right hand.

 

⁸ Guard me as the apple of the eye;

    hide me in the shadow of your wings,

⁹ from the wicked who despoil me,

    my deadly enemies who surround me.

¹⁰ They close their hearts to pity;

    with their mouths they speak arrogantly.

¹¹ They track me down; now they surround me;

    they set their eyes to cast me to the ground.

¹² They are like a lion eager to tear,

    like a young lion lurking in ambush.

 

¹³ Rise up, O Lord, confront them, overthrow them!

    By your sword deliver my life from the wicked,

¹⁴ from mortals—by your hand, O Lord—

    from mortals whose portion in life is in this world.

May their bellies be filled with what you have stored up for them;

    may their children have more than enough;

    may they leave something over to their little ones.

 

¹⁵ As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;

“’Apple of the eye’ translated literally is ‘little man, daughter of the eye.’ The mannikin is, of course, the reflection seen in the pupil. Daughter is either a contraction of a word meaning cavity, or is the common Hebrew idiom which by son or daughter of expresses relation, as sons of the bow = arrows. In fact, the curious Hebrew phrase is substantially like the Greek κόρη and Latin pupa, or pupilla, even to the gender.”