Psalm 88

Refrain:    You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.

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. [R]

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. [R]

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? [R]

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.

Refrain:    You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.

In the depths of our isolation

we cry to you, Lord God;

give light in our darkness

and bring us out of the prison of our despair

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Common Worship: Daily Prayer, material from which is included here,
is copyright © The Archbishops' Council 2005 and published by Church House Publishing.

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