Psalms 88

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