< Psalms 88 >
1 A Song [or] Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day [and] night before thee:
2 Let my prayer come before thee: incline thy ear to my cry;
3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh to the grave. (Sheol )
4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man [that hath] no strength:
5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. (Selah)
8 Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination to them: [I am] shut up, and I cannot come forth.
9 My eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands to thee.
10 Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise [and] praise thee? (Selah)
11 Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? [or] thy faithfulness in destruction?
12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But to thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer come before thee.
14 LORD, why castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?
15 I [am] afflicted and ready to die from [my] youth up: [while] I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
17 They came around me daily like water; they encompassed me together.
18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, [and] my acquaintance into darkness.
