1LORD, I have gone to you for safety. Let me never be put to shame.2You do what is right, so save me and help me. Pay attention to me and save me.3Be my rock of safety that I can always go to. Give the command to save me. You are my rock and my fort.4My God, save me from the power of sinners. Save me from the hands of those who are mean and evil.5You are the King and the LORD. You have always been my hope. I have trusted in you ever since I was young.6From the time I was born I have depended on you. You brought me out of my mother’s body. I will praise you for ever.7To many people I am an example of how much you care. You are my strong place of safety.8My mouth is filled with praise for you. All day long I will talk about your glory.9Don’t push me away when I’m old. Don’t desert me when my strength is gone.10My enemies speak against me. Those who want to kill me get together and make evil plans.11They say, ‘God has deserted him. Go after him and grab him. No one will save him.’12God, don’t be far away from me. My God, come quickly and help me.13May those who bring charges against me die in shame. May those who want to harm me be covered with shame and dishonour.14But I will always have hope. I will praise you more and more.15I will tell other people about all the good things you have done. All day long I will talk about how you have saved your people. But there’s no way I could say how many times you’ve done this.16LORD and King, I will come and announce your mighty acts. I will announce all the good things that you alone do.17God, ever since I was young you have taught me. To this very day I tell about your wonderful acts.18God, don’t leave me even when I’m old and have grey hair. Let me live to tell my children about your power. Let me tell all of them about your mighty acts.19God, your saving acts reach to the skies. You have done great things. God, who is like you?20You have sent many bitter troubles my way. But you will give me new life. Even if I’m almost in the grave, you will bring me back.21You will honour me more and more. You will comfort me once again.22My God, I will use the harp to praise you because you are always faithful. Holy One of Israel, I will use the lyre to sing praise to you.23My lips will shout with joy when I sing praise to you. You have saved me.24All day long my tongue will say that you have done what is right. Those who wanted to harm me have been put to shame. They have not been honoured.
Psalm 71
English Standard Version
Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent
1In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! (Ps 31:1)2In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me!3Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. (De 33:27; Ps 18:2; Ps 42:8; Ps 90:1; Ps 91:9)4Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. (Ps 140:1; Ps 140:4)5For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. (Jer 14:8; Jer 17:13; Jer 50:7; 1Ti 1:1)6Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. (Ps 22:9; Ps 22:10)7I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. (Isa 8:18; 1Co 4:9)8My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day. (Ps 71:24)9Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. (Ps 71:18)10For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together (Ps 41:7; Ps 56:6; Ps 83:5)11and say, “God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him.”12O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! (Ps 10:1; Ps 40:13; Ps 70:5)13May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt. (Es 9:2; Ps 35:4; Ps 35:26; Ps 70:2; Ps 71:24; Ps 109:29)14But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. (Ps 71:5; Ps 71:22)15My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. (Ps 40:5; Ps 71:8; Ps 71:24)16With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.17O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.18So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. (Ps 71:9; Isa 46:4)19Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? (1Sa 12:24; Ps 35:10; Ps 36:5; Ps 126:2; Lu 1:49)20You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. (Ps 60:3; Ps 80:18; Ps 85:6; Ps 119:25; Ps 138:7; Ps 143:11; Ho 6:2)21You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.22I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. (2Ki 19:22; Ps 33:2; Ps 78:41; Ps 89:18; Isa 60:9)23My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed. (Ps 34:22)24And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt. (Ps 35:28; Ps 71:8; Ps 71:13; Ps 71:15)