Psalm 88

LORD, you are the God who saves me;

I entreat you night and day.

May my pleading come before you;

turn your ear to me, I pray.

For my soul is full of trouble

and my life draws near to death.

Counted with the ones who perish,

I have neither strength nor breath.

To the grave I am abandoned,

like the bodies lying there.

You remember them no longer;

they are cut off from your care.

In the lowest pit you cast me;

in the darkest depths am I.

For your wrath is heavy on me,

and beneath your waves I lie.

Closest friends you’ve taken from me;

loathsome to them is my plight.

I am trapped—escape I cannot;

misery has dimmed my sight.

Daily, LORD, I call upon you;

in your sight my hands I spread.

In the grave do you show wonders?

Are you worshipped by the dead?

Is your love shown in Destruction—

in the grave your faithfulness?

Are your wonders known in darkness,

or in death your righteousness?

But I cry to you for help, LORD;

at the dawn to you I pray.

Why, O LORD, do you reject me,

and why turn your face away?

From my youth I’ve been afflicted;

death to me is always near.

I have undergone your terrors,

and I am in deep despair.

Your fierce anger has engulfed me;

by your terrors I am crushed.

All day long they overwhelm me;

over me the flood has rushed.

You have taken my companions

and my loved ones far from me.

Now my closest friend is darkness;

not a ray of light I see.