UST PSA Chapter 88

88 One of the Korahites wrote song. is a note for the worship leader: tune is “Weakness Afflicting.” Ezrahite song.

1 Yahweh, you are the God who saves me.

I continually ask you to help me.

2 Please pay attention to what I am saying as I pray to you.

3 I ask this because I have experienced so many bad things that I cannot endure any more;

I am about to die and go to the place where dead people are.

4 People expect me to die soon

because I have so little strength left.

5 It is as if I belong among dead people

who are lying in their graves.

It seems that you are no longer aware of such people

and you stop taking care of them.

6 It is as though you have thrown me down to the bottom of a deep, dark pit.

7 I feel as if you are angry with me, and that is like an oppressive burden to me.

It is as if I am drowning in your anger. Selah

8 Because my illness is so unpleasant and you have not healed me,

my friends stay away from me,

and I am not able to leave my home to visit anyone.

9 My eyes are swollen because I cry so much.

Yahweh, throughout the day I call out to you for help

as I spread out my hands toward you in prayer.

10 If I were to die, it would be too late for you to do a miracle to help me.

Dead people do not come back to life and praise you! Selah

11 Dead bodies in graves do not talk about how you faithfully love us.

In the place where dead people go, no one talks about how faithful you are.

12 No one in that dark place sees the amazing things you do;

no one in the place where no one remembers anything knows how good you are.

13 But I am still alive, Yahweh, and I am calling out to you to help me.

It is as if my prayer is already there waiting for you when you get up in the morning.

14 Yahweh, please do not reject me!

Please do not ignore me!

15 Since I was young, I have been so ill that I have nearly died.

I have been sick for so long with this terrible illness that you permit

that I have no more hope.

16 I feel as if you are very angry with me.

This terrible illness that you permit has destroyed the good life I could have had.

17 The bad things that are happening to me are like floodwaters

that continually surround me and are about to drown me.

18 Because you have allowed this illness,

my friends and family members stay away from me.

I can no longer see where they are.