Psalm 88

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

¹O Lord, God of my salvation,

I cry out day and night before you.

²Let my prayer come before you;

incline your ear to my cry!

³For my soul is full of troubles,

and my life draws near to Sheol.

⁴I am counted among those who go down to the pit;

I am a man who has no strength,

⁵like one set loose among the dead,

like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom you remember no more,

for they are cut off from your hand.

⁶You have put me in the depths of the pit,

in the regions dark and deep.

⁷Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah

⁸You have caused my companions to shun me;

you have made me a horror to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

⁹my eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call upon you, O Lord;

I spread out my hands to you.

¹⁰Do you work wonders for the dead?

Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah

¹¹Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

¹²Are your wonders known in the darkness,

or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³But I, O Lord, cry to you;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

¹⁴O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?

Why do you hide your face from me?

¹⁵Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.

¹⁶Your wrath has swept over me;

your dreadful assaults destroy me.

¹⁷They surround me like a flood all day long;

they close in on me together.

¹⁸You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;

my companions have become darkness.