Chapter 88

  A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:  

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  Let my prayer come before thee: incline thy ear to my cry;  

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  For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh to the grave.  

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  I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:  

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  Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.  

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  Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.  

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  Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.  

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  Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination to them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.  

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  My eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands to thee.  

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  Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.  

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  Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?  

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  Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?  

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  But to thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer come before thee.  

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  LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?  

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  I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.  

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  Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.  

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  They came around me daily like water; they encompassed me together.  

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  Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness.  

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