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A Plea for Rescue from Temptation

¹A psalm of David. O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help!

²Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering.

³Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips.

⁴Don’t let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness. Don’t let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.

⁵Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it. But I pray constantly against the wicked and their deeds.

⁶When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff, the wicked will listen to my words and find them true.

⁷Like rocks brought up by a plow, the bones of the wicked will lie scattered without burial.

⁸I look to you for help, O Sovereign Lord. You are my refuge; don’t let them kill me.

⁹Keep me from the traps they have set for me, from the snares of those who do wrong.

¹⁰Let the wicked fall into their own nets, but let me escape.