1    My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,  ♦

and are so far from my salvation,

    from the words of my distress?

2    O my God, I cry in the daytime,

    but you do not answer;  ♦

and by night also, but I find no rest.

3    Yet you are the Holy One,  ♦

enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

4    Our forebears trusted in you;  ♦

they trusted, and you delivered them.

5    They cried out to you and were delivered;  ♦

they put their trust in you and were not confounded.

6    But as for me, I am a worm and no man,  ♦

scorned by all and despised by the people.

7    All who see me laugh me to scorn;  ♦

they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,

8    ‘He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him;  ♦

let him deliver him, if he delights in him.’

9    But it is you that took me out of the womb  ♦

and laid me safe upon my mother’s breast.

10  On you was I cast ever since I was born;  ♦

you are my God even from my mother’s womb.

11  Be not far from me, for trouble is near at hand  ♦

and there is none to help.

12  Mighty oxen come around me;  ♦

fat bulls of Bashan close me in on every side.

13  They gape upon me with their mouths,  ♦

as it were a ramping and a roaring lion.

14  I am poured out like water;

    all my bones are out of joint;  ♦

my heart has become like wax

    melting in the depths of my body.

15  My mouth is dried up like a potsherd;

    my tongue cleaves to my gums;  ♦

you have laid me in the dust of death.

16  For the hounds are all about me,

    the pack of evildoers close in on me;  ♦

they pierce my hands and my feet.

17  I can count all my bones;  ♦

they stand staring and looking upon me.

18  They divide my garments among them;  ♦

they cast lots for my clothing.

19  Be not far from me, O Lord;  ♦

you are my strength; hasten to help me.

20  Deliver my soul from the sword,  ♦

my poor life from the power of the dog.

21  Save me from the lion’s mouth,

    from the horns of wild oxen.  ♦

You have answered me!

22  I will tell of your name to my people;  ♦

in the midst of the congregation will I praise you.

23  Praise the Lord, you that fear him;  ♦

O seed of Jacob, glorify him;

    stand in awe of him, O seed of Israel.

24  For he has not despised nor abhorred the suffering of the poor;

    neither has he hidden his face from them;  ♦

but when they cried to him he heard them.

25  From you comes my praise in the great congregation;  ♦

I will perform my vows

    in the presence of those that fear you.

26  The poor shall eat and be satisfied;  ♦

those who seek the Lord shall praise him;

    their hearts shall live for ever.

27  All the ends of the earth

    shall remember and turn to the Lord,  ♦

and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.

28  For the kingdom is the Lord’s  ♦

and he rules over the nations.

29  How can those who sleep in the earth

    bow down in worship,  ♦

or those who go down to the dust kneel before him?

30  He has saved my life for himself;

    my descendants shall serve him;  ♦

this shall be told of the Lord for generations to come.

31  They shall come and make known his salvation,

    to a people yet unborn,  ♦

declaring that he, the Lord, has done it.

 

Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England, material from which is included here,
is copyright © The Archbishops' Council 2000 and published by Church House Publishing.