Psalm 55 Good News Translation (GNT)

55 Hear my prayer, O God;
    don’t turn away from my plea!
² Listen to me and answer me;
    I am worn out by my worries.
³ I am terrified by the threats of my enemies,
    crushed by the oppression of the wicked.
They bring trouble on me;
    they are angry with me and hate me.

⁴ I am terrified,
    and the terrors of death crush me.
⁵ I am gripped by fear and trembling;
    I am overcome with horror.
⁶ I wish I had wings like a dove.
    I would fly away and find rest.
⁷ I would fly far away
    and make my home in the desert.
⁸ I would hurry and find myself a shelter
    from the raging wind and the storm.
⁹ Confuse the speech of my enemies, O Lord!

I see violence and riots in the city,
¹⁰     surrounding it day and night,
    filling it with crime and trouble.
¹¹ There is destruction everywhere;
    the streets are full of oppression and fraud.

¹² If it were an enemy making fun of me,
    I could endure it;
if it were an opponent boasting over me,
    I could hide myself from him.
¹³ But it is you, my companion,
    my colleague and close friend.
¹⁴ We had intimate talks with each other
    and worshiped together in the Temple.
¹⁵ May my enemies die before their time;
    may they go down alive into the world of the dead!
Evil is in their homes and in their hearts.

¹⁶ But I call to the Lord God for help,
    and he will save me.
¹⁷ Morning, noon, and night
    my complaints and groans go up to him,
    and he will hear my voice.
¹⁸ He will bring me safely back
    from the battles that I fight
    against so many enemies.
¹⁹ God, who has ruled from eternity,
    will hear me and defeat them;
for they refuse to change,
    and they do not fear him.

²⁰ My former companion attacked his friends;
    he broke his promises.
²¹ His words were smoother than cream,
    but there was hatred in his heart;
his words were as soothing as oil,
    but they cut like sharp swords.

²² Leave your troubles with the Lord,
    and he will defend you;
    he never lets honest people be defeated.

²³ But you, O God, will bring those murderers and liars to their graves
    before half their life is over.
As for me, I will trust in you.

Psalm 54 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

To the director: With instruments. A maskil of David written when the Ziphites went to Saul and told him, “We think David is hiding among our people.”

54 God, use your power and save me.
    Use your great power to set me free.
² God, listen to my prayer.
    Listen to what I say.
³ Strangers who don’t even think about God have turned against me.
    Those powerful men are trying to kill me. Selah

⁴ Look, my God will help me.
    My Lord will support me.
⁵ He will punish the people who turned against me.
    God, be faithful to me and destroy them.

⁶ Lord, I will give freewill offerings to you.
    I will praise your good name.
⁷ You saved me from all my troubles.
    I saw my enemies defeated.

Psalm 53 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

To the leader: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David.

¹ Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”
    They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts;
    there is no one who does good.

² God looks down from heaven on humankind
    to see if there are any who are wise,
    who seek after God.

³ They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse;
    there is no one who does good,
    no, not one.

⁴ Have they no knowledge, those evildoers,
    who eat up my people as they eat bread,
    and do not call upon God?

⁵ There they shall be in great terror,
    in terror such as has not been.
For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly;
    they will be put to shame, for God has rejected them.

⁶ O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
    When God restores the fortunes of his people,
    Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.

Read this Psalm out loud, taken from The Voice version of the Lord’s Word. Note the pauses; reflect on each section before moving on.

¹ Why do you boast of all the trouble you stir up, O mighty one,
    when the constant, unfailing love of God is what truly lasts?
² Have you listened to yourself?
    Your tongue is like a sharp razor,
    full of lies that slash and tear right to the soul.
³ You’ve fallen in love with evil and have no interest in what He calls good.
    You prefer your own lies to speaking what is true.

[pause]

⁴ You love words that destroy people, don’t you,
    lying tongue?

⁵ You won’t be smiling
    when the True God brings His justice and destroys you forever.
    He will come into your home, snatch you away,
    and pull you from the land of the living.

[pause]

⁶ Those who are just will see what happens to you and be afraid.
    And some of them will laugh and say,
⁷ “Hey, look! Over there is the one who didn’t take
    shelter in the True God;
Instead, he trusted in his great wealth
    and got what he wanted by destroying others!”

⁸ But my life is abundant—like a lush olive tree
    cared for at the house of the one True God.
I put my trust in His kind love
    forever and ever; it will never fail.
⁹ Because of all You have done,
    I will humble myself and thank You forever.
With Your faithful people at my side,
    I will put my hope in Your good reputation.