Prayer for God’s Help in Maintaining Integrity

A psalm of David.

1 I call on you, O Yahweh; hasten to me.

Listen to my voice when I call to you.

2 Let my prayer be set before you as incense,

the lifting up of my palms as the evening offering.

3 Set a guard, O Yahweh, over my mouth;

keep watch over the door of my lips.

4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,

to practice wicked deeds

with men who do iniquity;

and do not let me eat of their delicacies.

5 Let a righteous one strike me in kindness,

and let him chasten me.

It is oil for my head;let not my head refuse.

For still my prayer is against their evil deeds.

6 When their judges are thrown down the sides of a cliff,

then they will understand that my words were pleasant.

7 As when one plows and breaks up the earth,

so our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.

8 Butmy eyes are toward you, O Yahweh, my Lord;

I have taken refuge in you. Do not lay bare my soul.

9 Protect me from the graspof the trap they have laid for me,

and from the snares of evildoers.

10 Let the wicked fall into theirnets,

while I escape altogether.