Psalms 143:1–3

²Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.

¹IN thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.

⁶I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.

¹⁶¶ O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

¹I WILL sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

²For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

²⁵And now, O Lord God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said.

²⁰For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.

⁴How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?

²⁰Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

³If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

¹⁰If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

¹⁶Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

¹⁴What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

³And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

¹⁷Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

⁴⁶If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;

⁷Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

²I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?

³If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.

⁶He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

¹O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:

²Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

⁵Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

²²And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me: wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother?

⁶Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

⁹From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

¹⁰They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

¹¹They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;

¹²Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

¹³Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

⁴I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

⁵Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

⁶Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

¹¹And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle.

⁴Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

³For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah.

¹¹¶ Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

¹²I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.

¹³For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.