Psalms 88

New Jerusalem Bible	Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
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 Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD, my God, I call for help by day; I cry out in the night before thee.
² may my prayer reach your presence, hear my cry for help.	² Let my prayer come before thee, incline thy ear to my cry!
³ For I am fil ed with misery, my life is on the brink of Sheol;	³ For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
⁴ already numbered among those who sink into oblivion, I am as one bereft of strength,	⁴ I am reckoned among those who go down to the Pit; I am a man who has no 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.	⁵ like one forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom thou dost remember no more, for they are cut off from thy hand.
⁶ You have plunged me to the bottom of the grave, in the darkness, in the depths;	⁶ Thou hast put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep.
⁷ weighted down by your anger, kept low by your waves.Pause	⁷ Thy wrath lies heavy upon me, and thou dost overwhelm me with all thy waves. [Selah]
⁸ You have deprived me of my friends, made me repulsive to them, imprisoned, with no escape;	⁸ Thou hast caused my companions to shun me; thou hast made me a thing of horror to them. I am shut in so that 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.	⁹ my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon thee, O LORD; I spread out my hands to thee.
¹⁰ Do you work wonders for the dead, can shadows rise up to praise you?Pause	¹⁰ Dost thou work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise thee? [Selah]
¹¹ Do they speak in the grave of your faithful love, of your constancy in the place of perdition?	¹¹ Is thy steadfast love declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness in Abaddon?
¹² Are your wonders known in the darkness, your saving justice in the land of oblivion?	¹² Are thy wonders known in the darkness, or thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness?
¹³ But, for my part, I cry to you, Yahweh, every morning my prayer comes before you;	¹³ But I, O LORD, cry to thee; in the morning my prayer comes before thee.
¹⁴ why, Yahweh, do you rebuff me, turn your face away from me?	¹⁴ O LORD, why dost thou cast me off? Why dost thou hide thy face from me?
¹⁵ Wretched and close to death since childhood, I have borne your terrors -- I am finished!	¹⁵ Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer thy terrors; I am helpless.
¹⁶ Your anger has overwhelmed me, your terrors annihilated me.	¹⁶ Thy wrath has swept over me; thy dread assaults destroy me.
¹⁷ They flood around me al day long, close in on me al at once.	¹⁷ They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in upon me together.
¹⁸ You have deprived me of friends and companions, and al that I know is the dark.	¹⁸ Thou hast caused lover and friend to shun me; my companions are in darkness.