Psalms 88

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 A song; a psalm of the Korahites. For the leader; according to Mahalath. For singing; a maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.	1 [Song Psalm Of the sons of Korah In sickness In suffering Poem For Heman the native-born] Yahweh,God of my salvation, when I cry out to you in the night,
2 LORD, my God, I call out by day; at night I cry aloud in your presence.	2 may my prayer reach your presence, hear my cry for help.
3 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.	3 For I am fil ed with misery, my life is on the brink of Sheol;
4 For my soul is filled with troubles; my life draws near to Sheol.	4 already numbered among those who sink into oblivion, I am as one bereft of strength,
5 I am reckoned with those who go down to the pit; I am weak, without strength.	5 left alone among the dead, like the slaughtered lying in the grave, whom you remember no more, cutoff as they are from your protection.
6 My couch is among the dead, with the slain who lie in the grave. You remember them no more; they are cut off from your care.	6 You have plunged me to the bottom of the grave, in the darkness, in the depths;
7 You plunged me into the bottom of the pit, into the darkness of the abyss.	7 weighted down by your anger, kept low by your waves.Pause
8 Your wrath lies heavy upon me; all your waves crash over me. Selah	8 You have deprived me of my friends, made me repulsive to them, imprisoned, with no escape;
9 Because of you my friends shun me; you make me loathsome to them; Caged in, I cannot escape;	9 my eyes are worn out with suffering. I call to you, Yahweh, al day, I stretch out my hands to you.
10 my eyes grow dim from trouble. All day I call on you, LORD; I stretch out my hands to you.	10 Do you work wonders for the dead, can shadows rise up to praise you?Pause
11 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades arise and praise you? Selah	11 Do they speak in the grave of your faithful love, of your constancy in the place of perdition?
12 Is your love proclaimed in the grave, your fidelity in the tomb?	12 Are your wonders known in the darkness, your saving justice in the land of oblivion?
13 Are your marvels declared in the darkness, your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?	13 But, for my part, I cry to you, Yahweh, every morning my prayer comes before you;
14 But I cry out to you, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.	14 why, Yahweh, do you rebuff me, turn your face away from me?
15 Why do you reject me, LORD? Why hide your face from me?	15 Wretched and close to death since childhood, I have borne your terrors -- I am finished!
16 I am mortally afflicted since youth; lifeless, I suffer your terrible blows.	16 Your anger has overwhelmed me, your terrors annihilated me.
17 Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have reduced me to silence.	17 They flood around me al day long, close in on me al at once.
18 All the day they surge round like a flood; from every side they close in on me.	18 You have deprived me of friends and companions, and al that I know is the dark.
19 Because of you companions shun me; my only friend is darkness.