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 cut 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.