May 22 Reading

David’s Prayer for Justice

Psalm 35:10-18 (ESV)

10 All my bones shall say,
“O Lord, who is like you,
delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him,
the poor and needy from him who robs him?”

11 Malicious witnesses rise up;
they ask me of things that I do not know.

12 They repay me evil for good;
my soul is bereft.

13 But I, when they were sick—
I wore sackcloth;
I afflicted myself with fasting;
I prayed with my head bowed on my chest.

14 I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;
as one who laments for 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,
they gnash at me with their teeth.

17 How long, O Lord, will you look on?
Rescue me from their destruction,
my precious life from the lions!

18 I will thank you in the great congregation;
in the mighty throng I will praise you.