[1] Listen to my prayer, O LORD, and hear my cry for help! [2] When I am in trouble, don't turn away from me! Listen to me, and answer me quickly when I call! [3] My life is disappearing like smoke; my body is burning like fire. [4] I am beaten down like dry grass; I have lost my desire for food. [5] I groan aloud; I am nothing but skin and bones. [6] I am like a wild bird in the desert, like an owl in abandoned ruins. [7] I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on a housetop. [8] All day long my enemies insult me; those who mock me use my name in cursing. [9] Because of your anger and fury, ashes are my food, and my tears are mixed with my drink. You picked me up and threw me away. [11] My life is like the evening shadows; I am like dry grass. [12] But you, O LORD, are king forever; all generations will remember you. [13] You will rise and take pity on Zion; the time has come to have mercy on her; this is the right time. [14] Your servants love her, even though she is destroyed; they have pity on her, even though she is in ruins. [15] The nations will fear the LORD; all the kings of the earth will fear his power. [16] When the LORD rebuilds Zion, he will reveal his greatness. [17] He will hear his forsaken people and listen to their prayer. [18] Write down for the coming generation what the LORD has done, so that people not yet born will praise him. [19] The LORD looked down from his holy place on high, he looked down from heaven to earth. [20] He heard the groans of prisoners and set free those who were condemned to die. [21] And so his name will be proclaimed in Zion, and he will be praised in Jerusalem [22] when nations and kingdoms come together and worship the LORD. [23] The LORD has made me weak while I am still young; he has shortened my life. [24] O God, do not take me away now before I grow old. O LORD, you live forever; [25] long ago you created the earth, and with your own hands you made the heavens. [26] They will disappear, but you will remain; they will all wear out like clothes. You will discard them like clothes, and they will vanish. [27] But you are always the same, and your life never ends. [28] Our children will live in safety, and under your protection their descendants will be secure.
