Psalms 87

¹A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.

²O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.

³Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.

⁴For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.

⁵I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,

⁶Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cast off from thy hand.

⁷They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.

⁸Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.

⁹Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:

¹⁰My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.

¹¹Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?

¹²Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?

¹³Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?

¹⁴But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.

¹⁵Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?

¹⁶I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.

¹⁷Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.

¹⁸They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.

¹⁹Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.