¹Yahweh is the God who continually saves me.

I weep before you night and day.

²Please bend down and listen to my sobbing,

for my life is riddled with troubles

and death is just around the corner!

³Everyone sees my life ebbing out.

They consider me a hopeless case and see me as a dead man.

⁴They’ve all left me here to die, helpless,

like one who is doomed for death.

⁵They’re convinced you’ve forsaken me,

certain that you’ve forgotten me completely—

abandoned, pierced, with nothing to look forward to but death.

⁶They have discarded me and thrown me down[#88:6 As translated from the Septuagint. The Hebrew reads “You have discarded me.”]

into the deepest darkness as into a bottomless pit.

⁷I feel your wrath, and it’s a heavy weight upon me,

drowning me beneath a sea of sorrow.

⁸Why did you turn all my friends against me?

You’ve made me like a cursed man in their eyes.

No one wants to be with me now.

You’ve caught me in a trap with no way out.

⁹Every day I beg for your help. Can’t you see my tears?

My eyes are swollen with weeping.

My arms are wide, longing for mercy,

but you’re nowhere to be found.

¹⁰How can those who are cut off from your care

even know that you are there?

Do departed spirits rise up to praise you?

¹¹Who can give thanks for your love in the graveyard?

Who preaches your faithfulness in the place of destruction?

¹²Does death’s darkness declare your miracles?

How can anyone who’s in the grave, where all is forgotten,

remember how you keep your promises?

¹³Lord, you know my prayer before I even whisper it.[#88:13 As translated from the Septuagint.]

At each and every sunrise you will

continue to hear my cry until you answer.

¹⁴O Lord, why have you thrown my life away?

Will you keep turning the other way every time I call out to you?

¹⁵I’ve had to live in poverty and trouble all my life.[#88:15 As translated from the Septuagint. The Greek reads “close to death all my life.”]

Now I’m humiliated, broken, and helpless before your terrors

and I can’t take it anymore.

¹⁶I’m overwhelmed by your burning anger.

I’ve taken the worst you could give me,

and I’m speechless before you.

¹⁷I’m drowning beneath the waves of this sorrow,

cut off with no one to help.

¹⁸All my loved ones and friends keep far away from me,

leaving me all alone with only darkness as my friend.