[1] O LORD, the God of my salvation, I have cried out [for help] by day and in the night before You. [2] Let my prayer come before You and enter into Your presence; Incline Your ear to my cry! [3] For my soul is full of troubles, And my life draws near the grave (Sheol, the place of the dead). [4] I am counted among those who go down to the pit (grave); I am like a man who has no strength [a mere shadow], [5] Cast away [from the living] and abandoned among the dead, Like the slain who lie in a [nameless] grave, Whom You no longer remember, And they are cut off from Your hand. [6] You have laid me in the lowest pit, In dark places, in the depths. [7] Your wrath has rested heavily upon me, And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah. [8] You have put my friends far from me; You have made me an object of loathing to them. I am shut up and I cannot go out. [9] My eye grows dim with sorrow. O LORD, I have called on You every day; I have spread out my hands to You [in prayer]. [10] Will You perform wonders for the dead? Shall the departed spirits arise and praise You? Selah. [11] Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon (the underworld)? [12] Will Your wonders be known in the darkness? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]? [13] But I have cried out to You, O LORD, for help; And in the morning my prayer will come to You. [14] O LORD, why do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me? [15] I was afflicted and close to death from my youth on; I suffer Your terrors; I am overcome. [16] Your fierce wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. [17] They have surrounded me like flood waters all day long; They have completely encompassed me. [18] Lover and friend You have placed far from me; My familiar friends are in darkness.
