Psalm 140

    For the director of music. A psalm of David.
 ¹ Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men;
   protect me from men of violence,
² who devise evil plans in their hearts
   and stir up war every day.
³ They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s;
   the poison of vipers is on their lips.
                         Selah
 ⁴ Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked;
   protect me from men of violence
   who plan to trip my feet.
⁵ Proud men have hidden a snare for me;
   they have spread out the cords of their net
   and have set traps for me along my path.
                         Selah
 ⁶ O LORD, I say to you, “You are my God.”
   Hear, O LORD, my cry for mercy.
⁷ O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer,
   who shields my head in the day of battle—
⁸ do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD;
   do not let their plans succeed,
   or they will become proud.
                         Selah
 ⁹ Let the heads of those who surround me
   be covered with the trouble their lips have caused.
¹⁰ Let burning coals fall upon them;
   may they be thrown into the fire,
   into miry pits, never to rise.
¹¹ Let slanderers not be established in the land;
   may disaster hunt down men of violence.
 ¹² I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor
   and upholds the cause of the needy.
¹³ Surely the righteous will praise your name
   and the upright will live before you.