88:1 {A Song, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. To the chief Musician. Upon Mahalath Leannoth. An instruction. Of Heman the Ezrahite.} Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have cried by day [and] in the night before thee.
88:2 Let my prayer come before thee; incline thine ear unto my cry.
88:3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to Sheol.
88:4 I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength:
88:5 Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand.
88:6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.
88:7 Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.
88:8 Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
88:9 Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
88:10 Wilt thou do wonders to the dead? shall the shades arise and praise thee? Selah.
88:11 Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in Destruction?
88:12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
88:13 But as for me, Jehovah, I cry unto thee, and in the morning my prayer cometh before thee.
88:14 Why, O Jehovah, castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?
88:15 I am afflicted and expiring from my youth up; I suffer thy terrors, [and] I am distracted.
88:16 Thy fierce anger hath gone over me; thy terrors have brought me to nought:
88:17 They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together.
88:18 Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.
