Cast Your Cares on the Lord

(2 Samuel 17:15-29)

1Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David. Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:

2be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,

3at the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.

4My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.

5Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.

6And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?

7Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.

8I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.

9Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.

10Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,

11and injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.

12For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.

13But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,

14Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.

15Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.

16But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.

17Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.

18He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.

19God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:

20he hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,

21they are divided by the wrath Of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.

22Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.

23But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.