1 O Lord, God of my salvation, ♦
I have cried day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come into your presence; ♦
incline your ear to my cry.
3 For my soul is full of troubles; ♦
my life draws near to the land of death.
4 I am counted as one gone down to the Pit; ♦
I am like one that has no strength,
5 Lost among the dead, ♦
like the slain who lie in the grave,
6 Whom you remember no more, ♦
for they are cut off from your hand.
7 You have laid me in the lowest pit, ♦
in a place of darkness in the abyss.
8 Your anger lies heavy upon me, ♦
and you have afflicted me with all your waves.
9 You have put my friends far from me ♦
and made me to be abhorred by them.
10 I am so fast in prison that I cannot get free; ♦
my eyes fail from all my trouble.
11 Lord, I have called daily upon you; ♦
I have stretched out my hands to you.
12 Do you work wonders for the dead? ♦
Will the shades stand up and praise you?
13 Shall your loving-kindness be declared in the grave, ♦
your faithfulness in the land of destruction?
14 Shall your wonders be known in the dark ♦
or your righteous deeds in the land where all is forgotten?
15 But as for me, O Lord, I will cry to you; ♦
early in the morning my prayer shall come before you.
16 Lord, why have you rejected my soul? ♦
Why have you hidden your face from me?
17 I have been wretched and at the point of death from my youth; ♦
I suffer your terrors and am no more seen.
18 Your wrath sweeps over me; ♦
your horrors are come to destroy me;
19 All day long they come about me like water; ♦
they close me in on every side.
20 Lover and friend have you put far from me ♦
and hid my companions out of my sight.
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.
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