< 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. TO THE OVERSEER. [SET] ON “SICKNESS TO AFFLICT.” AN INSTRUCTION OF HEMAN THE EZRAHITE. O YHWH, God of my salvation, Daily I have cried, nightly before You,
2 Listen [IDM] to my prayer [DOU], while I cry out to you [for help]!
My prayer comes in before You, Incline Your ear to my loud cry,
3 I have experienced many troubles/difficulties, and I am about to die [MTY] and go where dead people are. (Sheol )
For my soul has been full of evils, And my life has come to Sheol. (Sheol )
4 Because I have no more strength, [other people also] consider that I will soon die.
I have been reckoned with those going down [to] the pit, I have been as 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.
Among the dead—free, As pierced ones lying in the grave, Whom You have not remembered anymore, Indeed, they have been cut off by Your hand.
6 [It is as though] you have thrown me into a deep, dark pit, into a place where they throw corpses.
You have put me in the lowest pit, In dark places, in 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 fury has lain on me, And You have afflicted [with] all Your breakers. (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 put my acquaintance far from me, You have made me an abomination to them, Shut up—I do not go forth.
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 eye has grieved because of affliction, I called You, O YHWH, all the day, I have 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 do wonders to the dead? Does Rephaim rise? Do they thank 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].
Is Your kindness recounted in the grave? Your faithfulness in 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 Your wonders known in the darkness? And Your righteousness 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.
And I, to You, O YHWH, I have cried, And 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 YHWH, do You cast off my soul? 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.
I [am] afflicted, and expiring from youth, I have borne Your terrors—I pine away.
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 passed over me, Your terrors have cut me off,
17 [I feel as though] they surround me like a flood [SIM]; they are (closing in on/crushing) me from all sides.
They have surrounded me as waters all the day, They have gone around against me together,
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 put lover and friend far from me, My acquaintance [is] the place of darkness!