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 descendants of Korah. For the music director. To the tune “Mahalath Leannoth.” A maskil by Heman the Ezrahite Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out to you day and night.
2 Listen [IDM] to my prayer [DOU], while I cry out to you [for help]!
Please listen to my prayer; hear my words as I plead with you.
3 I have experienced many troubles/difficulties, and I am about to die [MTY] and go where dead people are. (Sheol h7585)
My life is full of troubles, and my death is approaching. (Sheol h7585)
4 Because I have no more strength, [other people also] consider that I will soon die.
I'm counted among the dying; a man with no 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 abandoned among the dead, lying like a corpse in the grave, forgotten and beyond 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 placed me in a deep pit, in the depths of darkness.
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 hostility crushes me; you are drowning me under your crashing waves. (Selah)
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 made my friends avoid me by making me look repulsive to them. I'm trapped, I can't go out.
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].
I've cried my eyes out begging you every day for your help, Lord, holding 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 do miracles among the dead? Do the dead stand up to praise you? (Selah)
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].
Your faithful love—is it mentioned in the grave? Your trustworthiness—is it discussed in the place of destruction?
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.
Are the wonderful things you do known in the darkness? Is your goodness known in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But [as for me], Yahweh, I cry out to you [to help me]; each morning I pray to you.
But I cry out to you for help; every morning I pray to you.
14 Yahweh, why do you reject me [RHQ]? Why do you turn away from me [RHQ]?
Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn away 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.
I have been sick since I was young, often at death's door. I have had to bear the terrible things you've done to me. I'm 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 anger has overcome me; the terrible things you do 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.
They surround me all the time like floodwaters, swallowing me up.
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 made my family and friends avoid me. Darkness is my only friend.
