Day 136.  Psalms 3, 4, 12, 13, 28, 55.

A psalm David wrote when he fled Absalom his son.

• O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me:
• Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God.
• But You, O LORD are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
• I cried aloud to the LORD, and He answered me from His holy hill.
• I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
• I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
• Arise, O LORD. Save me, O my God!

Psalm 4.

• Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
• In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O LORD make me to swell in safety. 

Psalm 12.

• Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone; for the faithful have vanished from among the children of men.
• Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
• The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.
• You, O LORD, will keep them; You will guard us from this generation forever.

Psalm 13.

• How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
• Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
• But I have trusted in You steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 28.

• To You, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest if You be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. HEAR the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to You for help, when I life up my hands toward Your most holy sanctuary.
• Blessed be the LORD! For He has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy!

Psalm 55.

• Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not Yourself from my plea for mercy! Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked.  For they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me.

• My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.   And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; Yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”

• Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues, for I see violence and strife in the city; Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it; ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.

• For it is not an enemy who taunts me — then I could bear it;  it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me — then I could hide from him.  BUT IT WAS YOU, A MAN, MY EQUAL, MY COMPANION, MY FAMILIAR FRIEND.   We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house, we walked in the throng…..
• My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant. His speech was smooth as butter, yet WAR WAS IN HIS HEART; his words were softer than oil, yet they were DRAWN SWORDS. 

• But You, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days.  But I will put trust in You.