A Petition to Be Saved from Death.

A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician; set to chant mournfully. A didactic or reflective poem of Heman the Ezrahite.

1O LORD, the God of my salvation,

I have cried out [for help] by day and in the night before You.

2Let my prayer come before You and enter into Your presence;

Incline Your ear to my cry!

3For my soul is full of troubles,

And my life draws near the grave (Sheol, the place of the dead).

4I am counted among those who go down to the pit (grave);

I am like a man who has no strength [a mere shadow],

5[a]Cast away [from the living] and abandoned among the dead,

Like the slain who lie in a [nameless] grave,

Whom You no longer remember,

And they are cut off from Your hand.

6You have laid me in the lowest pit,

In dark places, in the depths.

7Your wrath has rested heavily upon me,

And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah.

8You have put my friends far from me;

You have made me an [b]object of loathing to them.

I am shut up and I cannot go out.

9My eye grows dim with sorrow.

O LORD, I have called on You every day;

I have spread out my hands to You [in prayer].

10Will You perform wonders for the dead?

Shall the departed spirits arise and praise You? Selah.

11Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave

Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon (the underworld)?

12Will Your wonders be known in the darkness?

And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?

13But I have cried out to You, O LORD, for help;

And in the morning my prayer will come to You.

14O LORD, why do You reject me?

Why do You hide Your face from me?

15I was afflicted and close to death from my youth on;

I suffer Your terrors; I am overcome.

16Your fierce wrath has swept over me;

Your terrors have destroyed me.

17They have surrounded me like flood waters all day long;

They have completely encompassed me.

18Lover and friend You have placed far from me;

My familiar friends are in darkness.