Take my side, Lord, against the ones who take theirs against me; Stand between me and the people coming for me. Pick up the shield and get up to help me. Say it to me where I can hear it: I am the one who saves you. Let the ones hunting my life come up empty And turn back with nothing to show. Let them be chaff the wind takes. For no reason they hid a net for me; For no reason they dug a pit. Let the trap they set close on them instead. False witnesses stood up And charged me with things I never knew about. They paid me back harm for good Until there was nothing left of me. And when they were sick, I was the one in rough cloth. I went without food for them. I bowed down heavy, the way you grieve for your own mother. But when it went badly for me they were glad, And they gathered, and I did not even know. They tore at me and did not stop. They opened their mouths wide and said, There, we saw it with our own eyes. Lord, how long are You going to watch this? Bring my life back from what they are doing to it. You have seen it. Do not stay quiet. Do not stand far off from me. Wake up to my case, my God and my Lord; Judge me by what is right in You. Then everything in me will be glad in the Lord And glad in the way He saves. All my bones will say it: Lord, who is there like You, Who gets the poor out from under someone stronger, The poor and the ones with nothing Out from under the one stripping them bare? Let the people who want to see me cleared Shout and be glad, And let them keep saying, Make the Lord large , He takes pleasure In it going well for the one who serves Him. And my tongue will talk about what is right in You And about Your praise, all day long.