Psalm 87–88

A Korah Psalm

^1–387He founded Zion on the Holy Mountain—

and oh, how God loves his home!

Loves it far better than all

the homes of Jacob put together!

God’s hometown—oh!

everyone there is talking about you!

⁴I name them off, those among whom I’m famous:

Egypt and Babylon,

also Philistia,

even Tyre, along with Cush.

Word’s getting around; they point them out:

“This one was born again here!”

⁵The word’s getting out on Zion:

“Men and women, right and left,

get born again in her!”

⁶God registers their names in his book:

“This one, this one, and this one—

born again, right here.”

⁷Singers and dancers give credit to Zion:

“All my springs are in you!”

A Korah Prayer of Heman

^1–988God, you’re my last chance of the day.

I spend the night on my knees before you.

Put me on your salvation agenda;

take notes on the trouble I’m in.

I’ve had my fill of trouble;

I’m camped on the edge of hell.

I’m written off as a lost cause,

one more statistic, a hopeless case.

Abandoned as already dead,

one more body in a stack of corpses,

And not so much as a gravestone—

I’m a black hole in oblivion.

You’ve dropped me into a bottomless pit,

sunk me in a pitch-black abyss.

I’m battered senseless by your rage,

relentlessly pounded by your waves of anger.

You turned my friends against me,

made me horrible to them.

I’m caught in a maze and can’t find my way out,

blinded by tears of pain and frustration.

^9–12I call to you, God; all day I call.

I wring my hands, I plead for help.

Are the dead a live audience for your miracles?

Do ghosts ever join the choirs that praise you?

Does your love make any difference in a graveyard?

Is your faithful presence noticed in the corridors of hell?

Are your marvelous wonders ever seen in the dark,

your righteous ways noticed in the Land of No Memory?

^13–18I’m standing my ground, God, shouting for help,

at my prayers every morning, on my knees each daybreak.

Why, God, do you turn a deaf ear?

Why do you make yourself scarce?

For as long as I remember I’ve been hurting;

I’ve taken the worst you can hand out, and I’ve had it.

Your wildfire anger has blazed through my life;

I’m bleeding, black-and-blue.

You’ve attacked me fiercely from every side,

raining down blows till I’m nearly dead.

You made lover and neighbor alike dump me;

the only friend I have left is Darkness.