3
1 I am
the man who has
seen affliction
by the rod
of his wrath.
2 He has
led me and caused
me to walk
in darkness,
and not in light.
3 Surely
he turns his
hand against me
again and again
all day long.
4 He
has made my flesh
and my skin
old.
He has broken
my bones.
5 He has
built against me,
and surrounded me
with bitterness
and hardship.
6 He has made
me dwell in
dark places,
as those who have
been long dead.
7 He
has walled me
about, so that
I can’t go
out.
He has made
my chain heavy.
8 Yes,
when I cry,
and call for
help,
he shuts out my
prayer.
9 He has walled
up my ways
with cut stone.
He has made my
paths crooked.
10 He
is to me as a
bear lying in wait,
as a lion in
hiding.
11 He has
turned away my
path,
and pulled me in
pieces.
He has made me
desolate.
12 He has bent
his bow,
and set me as
a mark for the
arrow.
13 He
has caused the shafts
of his quiver
to enter into my kidneys.
14 I
have become a
derision to all
my people,
and their song
all day long.
15 He has
filled me with
bitterness.
He has stuffed me
with wormwood.
16 He has also
broken my teeth
with gravel.
He has covered me with ashes.
17 You
have removed my
soul far away
from peace.
I forgot prosperity.
18 I said, “My
strength has perished,
along with my
expectation from
the LORD.”
19 Remember
my affliction and
my misery,
the wormwood and
the bitterness.
20 My
soul still
remembers them,
and is bowed
down within me.
21 This
I recall to
my mind;
therefore I have
hope.
22 It
is because of
the LORD’s loving
kindnesses that we
are not consumed,
because his
mercies don’t fail.
23 They
are new every
morning.
Great is your faithfulness.
24 “The
LORD is my
portion,” says my
soul.
“Therefore I will
hope in him.”
25 The
LORD is good
to those who
wait for him,
to the soul
who seeks him.
26 It
is good that
a man should
hope
and quietly wait
for the salvation
of the LORD.
27 It
is good for
a man that
he bear the
yoke in his
youth.
28 Let him
sit alone and keep
silence,
because he has
laid it on
him.
29 Let
him put his
mouth in the
dust,
if it is
so that there
may be hope.
30 Let
him give his
cheek to him
who strikes him.
Let him be
filled full of
reproach.
31 For
the Lord will not
cast off forever.
32 For
though he causes
grief,
yet he will
have compassion according
to the multitude
of his loving
kindnesses.
33 For
he does not
afflict willingly,
nor grieve the
children of men.
34 To
crush under foot
all the prisoners
of the earth,
35 to
turn away the
right of a
man before the
face of the
Most High,
36 to
subvert a man
in his cause,
the Lord doesn’t approve.
37 Who
is he who says,
and it comes
to pass,
when the Lord doesn’t
command it?
38 Doesn’t
evil and good
come out of
the mouth of
the Most High?
39 Why
should a living
man complain,
a man for
the punishment of
his sins?
40 Let
us search and
try our ways,
and turn again
to the LORD.
41 Let’s lift
up our heart
with our hands
to God
in the heavens.
42 “We
have transgressed
and have rebelled.
You have not
pardoned.
43 “You
have covered us
with anger and
pursued us.
You have killed.
You have not
pitied.
44 You have
covered yourself with
a cloud,
so that no prayer
can pass through.
45 You
have made us
an off-scouring and
refuse
in the middle
of the peoples.
46 “All
our enemies have
opened their mouth
wide against us.
47 Terror
and the pit
have come on
us,
devastation and
destruction.”
48 My
eye runs down with
streams of water,
for the
destruction of the
daughter of my
people.
49 My
eye pours down
and doesn’t cease,
without any
intermission,
50 until
the LORD looks
down,
and sees from
heaven.
51 My
eye affects my
soul,
because of all
the daughters of
my city.
52 They have
chased me relentlessly like
a bird,
those who are my enemies without
cause.
53 They have
cut off my
life in
the dungeon,
and have cast
a stone on me.
54 Waters
flowed over my
head.
I said, “I am cut
off.”
55 I
called on your
name, LORD,
out of the
lowest dungeon.
56 You
heard my voice:
“Don’t hide your
ear from
my sighing,
and my cry.”
57 You
came near in
the day that
I called on
you.
You said, “Don’t
be afraid.”
58 Lord, you
have pleaded the
causes of my
soul.
You have redeemed
my life.
59 LORD,
you have seen
my wrong.
Judge my cause.
60 You
have seen all
their vengeance
and all their
plans against me.
61 You
have heard their
reproach, LORD,
and all their
plans against me,
62 the
lips of those
that rose up
against me,
and their plots
against me all
day long.
63 You
see their sitting
down and their
rising up.
I am their song.
64 You
will pay them
back, LORD,
according to the
work of their
hands.
65 You
will give them
hardness of heart,
your curse to
them.
66 You
will pursue them
in anger,
and destroy them
from under the
heavens of the
LORD.