Psalms 88
1O LORD God of my salvation, before Thee I have cried day and night.
2Let my prayer come before Thee, incline, O Lord, Thine ear to my supplication;
3for my soul is full of trouble, and my life draweth near to the mansion of the dead.
4I was counted with them who are going down to the pit; I became like a man who is past recovery—
5like one set free among the dead—like the prostrate slain, asleep in the grave, whom Thou hast no more remembered.
6Though they were cast off out of Thy hand, they laid me in the lowest pit—in dark places and in the shade of death.
7On me Thy wrath was pressed hard, and all Thy billows Thou didst bring upon me.
8Thou hast removed far from me my acquaintance, they accounted me an abomination to them. I was delivered up and did not go abroad;
9mine eyes were weakened by affliction. To Thee, O Lord, I cried all the day long: to Thee I stretched forth my hands.
10Wilt Thou work wonders among the dead? Or can physicians raise them up to praise Thee?
11Can any in the grave declare Thy kindness?—Or Thy faithfulness, in destruction?
12Can Thy wonders be known in darkness—Or Thy saving mercy, in the land of forgetfulness?
13As for me, I have cried to Thee, O Lord, and in the morning my prayers shall be before Thee.
14O Lord, why rejectest Thou my prayer—why turnest Thou away Thy face from me?
15I am afflicted and in troubles from my youth: though raised high I have been humbled and distressed.
16Thy resentments have come upon me; and Thy terrors have quite confounded me:
17they have encompassed me like water: all the day long they begirt me at once.
18Thou hast removed a friend far from me, my acquaintance also, because of misery.