A Prayer for Help in Despair

88 A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah.

For the music director; according to Mahalath Leannoth.

A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.a

1 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 manb without strength,c

5 set freed 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 detestablee 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 handsf to you.

10 Do you work wondersg for the dead?

Or do the departed spiritsh 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 wondersj known in the darkness,

or your righteousnessk 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.