Psalms 88
1 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.
A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. For the choirmaster. According to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD, the God of my salvation, day and night I cry out before You.
2 Listen [IDM] to my prayer [DOU], while I cry out to you [for help]!
May my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry.
3 I have experienced many troubles/difficulties, and I am about to die [MTY] and go where dead people are. (Sheol h7585)
For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. (Sheol h7585)
4 Because I have no more strength, [other people also] consider that I will soon die.
I am counted among those descending to the Pit. I am like a man without strength.
5 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.
I am forsaken among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, who are cut off from Your care.
6 [It is as though] you have thrown me into a deep, dark pit, into a place where they throw corpses.
You have laid me in the lowest Pit, in the darkest of the depths.
7 [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].
Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me.
8 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.
You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.
9 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].
My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O LORD; I spread out my hands to You.
10 You certainly do not [RHQ] perform miracles for dead people! Their spirits do not [RHQ] arise to praise you!
Do You work wonders for the dead? Do departed spirits rise up to praise You?
11 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].
Can Your loving devotion be proclaimed in the grave, Your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 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.
Will Your wonders be known in the darkness, or Your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
13 But [as for me], Yahweh, I cry out to you [to help me]; each morning I pray to you.
But to You, O LORD, I cry for help; in the morning my prayer comes before You.
14 Yahweh, why do you reject me [RHQ]? Why do you turn away from me [RHQ]?
Why, O LORD, do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me?
15 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.
From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
16 [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.
Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.
17 [I feel as though] they surround me like a flood [SIM]; they are (closing in on/crushing) me from all sides.
All day long they engulf me like water; they enclose me on every side.
18 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.
You have removed my beloved and my friend; darkness is my closest companion.
