Psalms 88

A Song, a Psalm of the sons of Korah; for the Chief Musician; set to Mahalath Leannoth. Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.

¹O Jehovah, the God of my salvation,

I have cried day and night before thee.

²Let my prayer enter into thy presence;

Incline thine ear unto my cry.

³For my soul is full of troubles,

And my life draweth nigh unto Sheol.

⁴I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit;

I am as a man that hath no help,

⁵Cast off among the dead,

Like the slain that lie in the grave,

Whom thou rememberest no more,

And they are cut off from thy hand.

⁶Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit,

In dark places, in the deeps.

⁷Thy wrath lieth hard upon me,

And thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. [Selah

⁸Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me;

Thou hast made me an abomination unto them:

I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

⁹Mine eye wasteth away by reason of affliction:

I have called daily upon thee, O Jehovah;

I have spread forth my hands unto thee.

¹⁰Wilt thou show wonders to the dead?

Shall they that are deceased arise and praise thee? [Selah

¹¹Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave?

Or thy faithfulness in Destruction?

¹²Shall thy wonders be known in the dark?

And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³But unto thee, O Jehovah, have I cried;

And in the morning shall my prayer come before thee.

¹⁴Jehovah, why castest thou off my soul?

Why hidest thou thy face from me?

¹⁵I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up:

While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

¹⁶Thy fierce wrath is gone over me;

Thy terrors have cut me off.

¹⁷They came round about me like water all the day long;

They compassed me about together.

¹⁸Lover and friend hast thou put far from me,

And mine acquaintance into darkness.