1 O LORD, the God of my salvation, I have cried to You for help by day; at night I am in Your presence. 2 Let my prayer come before You and really enter into Your presence; incline Your ear to my cry!
3 For I am full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol (the place of the dead). 4 I am counted among those who go down into the pit (the grave); I am like a man who has no help or strength [a mere shadow], 5 Cast away among the dead, like the slain that lie in a [nameless] grave, whom You [seriously] remember no more, and they are cut off from Your hand. 6 You have laid me in the depths of the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. 7 Your wrath lies hard upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
8 You have put my [familiar] friends far from me; You have made me an abomination to them. I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. 9 My eye grows dim because of sorrow and affliction. Lord, I have called daily on You; I have spread forth my hands to You. 10 Will You show wonders to the dead? Shall the departed arise and praise You? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! 11 Shall Your steadfast love be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon (Sheol, as a place of ruin and destruction)? 12 Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the place of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?
13 But to You I cry, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer come to meet You. 14 Lord, why do You cast me off? Why do You hide Your face from me? 15 I was afflicted and close to death from my youth up; while I suffer Your terrors I am distracted [I faint]. 16 Your fierce wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. 17 They surround me like a flood all day long; together they have closed in upon me. 18 Lover and friend have You put far from me; my familiar friends are darkness and the grave.