Psalms 88
1 O lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you:
Yahweh God, you who rescues me, all during each day I call out [to you] to help me, and I cry out to you during each night also.
2 Let my prayer come before you: incline your ear to my cry;
Listen [IDM] to my prayer [DOU], while I cry out to you [for help]!
I have experienced many troubles/difficulties, and I am about to die [MTY] and go where dead people are. (Sheol h7585)
4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that has no strength:
Because I have no more strength, [other people also] consider that I will soon die.
5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom you remember no more: and they are cut off from your hand.
I am like a corpse that has been abandoned; I am like dead people who lie in their graves, people who have been completely forgotten, because you do not take care of them any more.
6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
[It is as though] you have thrown me into a deep, dark pit, into a place where they throw corpses.
7 Your wrath lies hard on me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves. (Selah)
[It seems like] you are very angry with me, and [it is as though] you have crushed me like [ocean] waves [crash down on people] [MET].
8 You have put away my acquaintance far from me; you have made me an abomination to them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
You have caused my friends to (avoid/stay away from) me; I have become repulsive to them. [It is as though] I am in a prison and cannot escape.
9 My eye mourns by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily on you, I have stretched out my hands to you.
My eyes cannot see well because I cry very much. Yahweh, every day I call out to you [to help me]; I lift up my hands to you [while I pray].
10 Will you show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise you? (Selah)
You certainly do not [RHQ] perform miracles for dead people! Their spirits do not [RHQ] arise to praise you!
11 Shall your loving kindness be declared in the grave? or your faithfulness in destruction?
Corpses in the grave certainly do not tell about your faithfully loving us [RHQ], and in the place where people are finally destroyed, no one tells about what you faithfully [do for us] [RHQ].
12 Shall your wonders be known in the dark? and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
No one in the deep dark pit ever sees the miracles that you perform [RHQ], and no one in the place where people have been completely forgotten tells about your being good to us.
13 But to you have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent you.
But [as for me], Yahweh, I cry out to you [to help me]; each morning I pray to you.
14 LORD, why cast you off my soul? why hide you your face from me?
Yahweh, why do you reject me [RHQ]? Why do you turn away from me [RHQ]?
15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer your terrors I am distracted.
All the time since I was young, I have suffered and have often almost died; I am (in despair/very discouraged) because of enduring the terrible things that you have done to me.
16 Your fierce wrath goes over me; your terrors have cut me off.
[I feel that] you have crushed me because of your being angry with me; the terrible things that you are doing to me are almost destroying me.
17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.
[I feel as though] they surround me like a flood [SIM]; they are (closing in on/crushing) me from all sides.
18 Lover and friend have you put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness.
You have caused [even] my friends and others whom I love to avoid me, and [it is as though] the only friend that I have is darkness.
