88
A psalm that expresses sadness, written for the choir director by Zerah's son Heman, one of the descendants of Korah
1 Yahweh God, you who rescues me, all during each day I call out to you to help me,
and I cry out to you during each night also.
2 Listen [IDI] to my prayer [DOU],
while I cry out to you for help!
3 I have experienced many troubles/difficulties,
and I am about to die [MTY] and go where dead people are.
4 Because I have no more strength,
other people also consider that I will soon die.
5 I am like a corpse that has been abandoned;
I am like dead people who lie in their graves,
people who have been completely forgotten,
because you do not take care of them any more.
6 It is as though you have thrown me into a deep, dark pit,
into a place where they throw corpses.
7 It seems like you are very angry with me,
and it is as though you have crushed me like ocean waves crash down on people [MET].
(Think about that!)
8 You have caused my friends to ◄avoid/stay away from► me;
I have become repulsive to them.
It is as though I am in a prison and cannot escape.
9 My eyes cannot see well because I cry very much.
Yahweh, every day I call out to you to help me;
I lift up my hands to you while I pray.
10 You certainly do not [RHQ] perform miracles for dead people!
Their spirits do not [RHQ] arise to praise you!
(Think about that!)
11 Corpses in the grave certainly do not tell about your faithfully loving us [RHQ],
and in the place where people are finally destroyed,
no one tells about what you faithfully do for us. [RHQ]
12 No one in the deep dark pit ever sees the miracles that you perform [RHQ],
and no one in the place where people have been completely forgotten tells about your being good to us.
13 But as for me, Yahweh, I cry out to you to help me;
each morning I pray to you.
14 Yahweh, why do you reject me?
Why do you turn away from me?
15 All the time since I was young, I have suffered and have often almost died;
I am ◄in despair/very discouraged► because of enduring the terrible things that you have done to me.
16 I feel that you have crushed me because of your being angry with me;
the terrible things that you are doing to me are almost destroying me.
17 I feel as though they surround me like a flood [SIM];
they are ◄closing in on/crushing► me from all sides.
18 You have caused even my friends and others whom I love to avoid me,
and it is as though the only friend that I have is darkness.
Note: The Old Testament in this translation is still being worked on, and is in draft form. Updates will be posted at eBible.org/t4t/.