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A Prayer for Help in Despair

A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah.

For the music director; according to Mahalath Leannoth.

A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.[a]

88 
O Yahweh, God of my salvation,

I cry out by day and through the night before you.

2 Let my prayer come before you;

incline your ear to my cry.

3 For my soul is full with troubles,

and my life approaches Sheol.

4 I am reckoned with those descending to the pit.

I am like a man[b] without strength,[c]

5 set free[d] among the dead,

like the slain lying in the grave,

whom you no longer remember,

even those cut off from your hand.

6 You have set me in the pit below,

in dark places, in the depths.

7 Your wrath presses upon me,

and you afflict me with all your waves. Selah

8 You have removed my acquaintances far from me.

You have made me detestable[e] to them.

I am confined and cannot go out.

9 My eye languishes from misery.

I call on you, O Yahweh, every day;

I spread out my hands[f] to you.

10 Do you work wonders[g] for the dead?

Or do the departed spirits[h] rise up to praise you? Selah

11 Is your loyal love told in the grave,

or your faithfulness in the underworld?[i]

12 Are your wonders[j] known in the darkness,

or your righteousness[k] in the land of forgetfulness?

13 But as for me, I cry for help to you, O Yahweh,

and in the morning my prayer comes before you.

14 Why do you reject my soul, O Yahweh?

Why do you hide your face from me?

15 I am afflicted and perishing from my youth.

I bear your terrors. I am distraught.[l]

16 Your burning anger has passed over me;

your sudden fears have destroyed me.

17 They surround me like water all the day;

they circle about me altogether.

18 You have removed loved one and friend far from me,

my acquaintances far from my darkness.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 88:1 The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
  2. Psalm 88:4 The Hebrew suggests a strong, vigorous man
  3. Psalm 88:4 Or “without help”
  4. Psalm 88:5 Or “forsaken”
  5. Psalm 88:8 Hebrew “an abomination”
  6. Psalm 88:9 Hebrew “palms”
  7. Psalm 88:10 Hebrew “wonder”
  8. Psalm 88:10 Hebrew rephaim, sometimes translated “shades”; the weakened state of those who have died
  9. Psalm 88:11 Hebrew abaddon, the place of destruction
  10. Psalm 88:12 Hebrew “wonder”
  11. Psalm 88:12 Or “deed of justice”
  12. Psalm 88:15 Hebrew meaning uncertain