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A petition to be saved from death.

A Song, a Psalm of the sons of Korah; for the Chief Musician; set to Mahalath [a]Leannoth. Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.

88 O Jehovah, the God of my salvation,
I have cried day and night before thee.
Let my prayer enter into thy presence;
Incline thine ear unto my cry.
For my soul is full of troubles,
And my life draweth nigh unto Sheol.
I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit;
I am as a man that hath no help,
Cast [b]off among the dead,
Like the slain that lie in the grave,
Whom thou rememberest no more,
And they are cut off from thy hand.
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit,
In dark places, in the deeps.
Thy wrath lieth hard upon me,
And thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah
Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me;
Thou hast made me an abomination unto them:
I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
Mine eye wasteth away by reason of affliction:
I have called daily upon thee, O Jehovah;
I have spread forth my hands unto thee.
10 Wilt thou show wonders to the dead?
Shall [c]they that are deceased arise and praise thee? Selah
11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave?
Or thy faithfulness in [d]Destruction?
12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark?
And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But unto thee, O Jehovah, have I cried;
And in the morning shall my prayer come before thee.
14 Jehovah, why castest thou off my soul?
Why hidest thou thy face from me?
15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up:
While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
16 Thy fierce wrath is gone over me;
Thy terrors have cut me off.
17 They came round about me like water all the day long;
They compassed me about together.
18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me,
And mine acquaintance [e]into darkness.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 88:1 Or, for singing
  2. Psalm 88:5 Or, away
  3. Psalm 88:10 Or, the shades. Hebrew Rephaim.
  4. Psalm 88:11 Hebrew Abaddon. See Job 26:6.
  5. Psalm 88:18 Or, are darkness