Chapter 88

  {A Song, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. To the chief Musician. Upon Mahalath Leannoth. An instruction. Of Heman the Ezrahite.} Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have cried by day [and] in the night before thee.  

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  Let my prayer come before thee; incline thine ear unto my cry.  

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  For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to Sheol.  

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  I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength:  

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  Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand.  

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  Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.  

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  Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.  

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  Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.  

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  Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.  

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  Wilt thou do wonders to the dead? shall the shades arise and praise thee? Selah.  

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  Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in Destruction?  

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  Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?  

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  But as for me, Jehovah, I cry unto thee, and in the morning my prayer cometh before thee.  

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  Why, O Jehovah, castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?  

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  I am afflicted and expiring from my youth up; I suffer thy terrors, [and] I am distracted.  

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  Thy fierce anger hath gone over me; thy terrors have brought me to nought:  

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  They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together.  

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  Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.  

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