A Song. A Psalm for the Sons of Korah, to the chief musician on Mahalath, to make humble. A Poem of Heman the Ezrahite. O Jehovah God of my salvation, I have cried in the day, in the night before You.
2Let my prayer come before You; bow down Your ear to my cry.
3For my soul is full with evils, and my life touches Sheol.
4I am counted with those who go down to the Pit; I have been like a feeble man,
5free among the dead, as pierced ones lying in the grave, whom You remember no more; yea by Your hand they are cut off.
6You have laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.
7Your fury has lain hard upon me, and You afflict me with all Your waves. Selah.
8You have taken ones knowing me away from me; You have made me a hateful thing to them; I am shut up, I will not go out.
9My eye mourns because of affliction; O Jehovah, I have called on You every day; I have spread out my hands to You.
10For will You do wonders for those dying? Or shall the departed spirits rise and thank You? Selah.
11Shall Your mercy be declared in the grave, Your faithfulness amidst ruin?
12Shall Your wonders be known in the dark, and Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13But to You I have cried, O Jehovah; and in the morning my prayer shall go before You.
14O Jehovah, why do You cast off my soul; why do You hide Your face from me?
15I am afflicted and dying from childhood; I suffer Your terrors; I am distracted.
16Your fierce wrath goes over me; Your terrors have cut me off.
17They surrounded me like waters all the day; they have come together around me.
18You have taken lover and friend far from me, he who knows me, into darkness.