Great Is Your Faithfulness

3 kI am the man who has seen affliction

under the lrod of his wrath;

2  he has driven and brought me

minto darkness without any light;

3  surely against me he turns his hand

again and again the whole day long.

4  He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;

nhe has broken my bones;

5  ohe has besieged and enveloped me

with pbitterness and tribulation;

6  qhe has made me dwell in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

7  rHe has walled me about so that sI cannot escape;

he has made my chains heavy;

8  though tI call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

9  rhe has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;

he has made my paths crooked.

10  uHe is a bear lying in wait for me,

a lion in hiding;

11  vhe turned aside my steps and utore me to pieces;

whe has made me desolate;

12  xhe bent his bow yand set me

as a target for his arrow.

13  He drove into my kidneys

zthe arrows of his quiver;

14  aI have become the laughingstock of all peoples,

bthe object of their taunts all day long.

15  cHe has filled me with bitterness;

he has sated me with dwormwood.

16  eHe has made my teeth grind on gravel,

and fmade me cower in ashes;

17  my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness1 is;

18  gso I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope from the Lord.”

19  hRemember my affliction and my wanderings,

dthe wormwood and ithe gall!

20  My soul continually remembers it

jand is bowed down within me.

21  But this I call to mind,

and ktherefore I have hope:

22  lThe steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;2

lhis mercies never come to an end;

23  they are new mevery morning;

ngreat is your faithfulness.

24  o“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

k“therefore I will hope in him.”

25  The Lord is good to those who pwait for him,

to the soul who seeks him.

26  qIt is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

27  rIt is good for a man that he bear

the yoke sin his youth.

28  Let him tsit alone in silence

when it is laid on him;

29  ulet him put his mouth in the dust—

there may yet be hope;

30  vlet him give his cheek to the one who strikes,

and let him be filled with insults.

31  wFor the Lord will not

cast off forever,

32  but, though he xcause grief, yhe will have compassion

zaccording to the abundance of his steadfast love;

33  afor he does not afflict from his heart

or bgrieve the children of men.

34  To crush underfoot

all cthe prisoners of the earth,

35  dto deny a man justice

in the presence of the Most High,

36  to subvert a man in his lawsuit,

dthe Lord does not approve.

37  eWho has spoken and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has commanded it?

38  fIs it not from the mouth of the Most High

that good and bad come?

39  gWhy should a living man complain,

a man, about the punishment of his sins?

40  Let us test and examine our ways,

hand return to the Lord!

41  iLet us lift up our hearts and hands

to God in heaven:

42  j“We have transgressed and krebelled,

and you have not forgiven.

43  “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,

lkilling without pity;

44  myou have wrapped yourself with a cloud

so that no prayer can pass through.

45  nYou have made us scum and garbage

among the peoples.

46  o“All our enemies

open their mouths against us;

47  ppanic and pitfall have come upon us,

devastation and qdestruction;

48  rmy eyes flow with rivers of tears

because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49  r“My eyes will flow without ceasing,

without respite,

50  suntil the Lord from heaven

looks down and sees;

51  my eyes cause me grief

at the fate of all the daughters of my city.

52  t“I have been hunted ulike a bird

by those who were my enemies vwithout cause;

53  wthey flung me alive into the pit

xand cast stones on me;

54  ywater closed over my head;

I said, z‘I am lost.’

55  a“I called on your name, O Lord,

from the depths of the pit;

56  byou heard my plea, ‘Do not close

your ear to my cry for help!’

57  cYou came near when I called on you;

you said, d‘Do not fear!’

58  “You have etaken up my cause, fO Lord;

you have eredeemed my life.

59  You have seen the wrong done to me, gO Lord;

judge my cause.

60  You have seen all their vengeance,

all htheir plots against me.

61  i“You have heard their taunts, O Lord,

all htheir plots against me.

62  The lips and thoughts jof my assailants

are against me all the day long.

63  kBehold their sitting and their rising;

lI am the object of their taunts.

64  m“You will repay them,3 O Lord,

naccording to the work of their hands.

65  You will give them4 dullness of heart;

your curse will be5 on them.

66  You will pursue them6 in anger and odestroy them

from under pyour heavens, O Lord.”7