88:1 [A Song [or] Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.] O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day [and] night before thee:
88:2 Let my prayer come before thee: incline thy ear to my cry;
88:3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth near to the grave.
88:4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man [that hath] no strength:
88:5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
88:6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
88:7 Thy wrath lieth heavy upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.
88:8 Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination to them: [I am] shut up, and I cannot come forth.
88:9 My eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands to thee.
88:10 Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise [and] praise thee? Selah.
88:11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? [or] thy faithfulness in destruction?
88:12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
88:13 But to thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer come before thee.
88:14 LORD, why castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?
88:15 I [am] afflicted and ready to die from [my] youth up: [while] I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
88:16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
88:17 They came around me daily like water; they surrounded me together.
88:18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, [and] my acquaintance into darkness.