1 “I am the man who has experienced suffering under the rod of God’s fury.
2 God has driven me away
3 He beat me again and again all day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away.
5 He has attacked me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me live in darkness,
7 He has blocked me so that I can’t get out.
8 Even when I cry and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my way with cut stones and made my paths crooked.
10 He is like a bear waiting to ambush me, like a lion in hiding.
11 He has forced me off the road I was taking, torn me to pieces,
12 He has drawn his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
13 He has shot the arrows from his quiver into my heart.
14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people.
15 He has filled me with bitterness.
16 He has ground my teeth with gravel.
17 “My soul has been kept from enjoying peace.
18 I said, ‘I’ve lost my strength ⌞to live⌟ and my hope in the Lord.’
19 Remember my suffering and my ⌞aimless⌟ wandering,
20 My soul continues to remember ⌞these things⌟ and is so discouraged.
21 “The reason I can ⌞still⌟ find hope is that I keep this one thing in mind:
22 the Lord’s mercy.
23 It is new every morning.
24 My soul can say, ‘The Lord is my lot ⌞in life⌟.
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
26 “It is good to continue to hope and wait silently
27 It is good for people to endure burdens when they’re young.
28 They should sit alone and remain silent
29 They should put their mouths in the dust.
30 They should turn their cheeks to the one who strikes them
31 “The Lord will not reject ⌞such⌟ people forever.
32 Even if he makes us suffer,
33 He does not willingly bring suffering or grief to anyone,
34 crush any prisoner on earth underfoot,
35 deny people their rights in the presence of the Most High God,
36 or deprive people of justice in court.
37 Who was it who spoke and it came into being?
38 Both good and bad come from the mouth of the Most High God.
39 “Why should any living mortal (any person)
40 Let us look closely at our ways and examine them
41 Let us raise our hearts and hands to God in heaven.
42 “We have been disobedient and rebellious.
43 You covered yourself with anger and pursued us.
44 You covered yourself with a cloud
45 You made us the scum and trash of the nations.
46 All our enemies gawk at us.
47 Panic and pitfalls have found us, so have devastation and destruction.
48 “Streams of tears run down from my eyes
49 My eyes will keep flowing without stopping for a moment
50 until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees.
51 What I see with my eyes disturbs me deeply
52 “Those who were my enemies for no reason hunted me like a bird.
53 They threw me alive into a pit and threw rocks at me.
54 Water flowed over my head. I thought I was finished.
55 “I call your name from the deepest pit, O Lord.
56 Listen to my cry ⌞for help⌟.
57 Be close at hand when I call to you. You told me not to be afraid.
58 Plead my case for me, O Lord. Reclaim my life.
59 Look at the wrong that has been done to me, O Lord.
60 Look at all their malice, all their plots against me.
61 Listen to their insults, all their plots against me.
62 The words and thoughts of those who attack me
63 Look at them! Whether they are sitting or standing,
64 Pay them back, O Lord, for what they deserve,
65 Make them stubborn. Let your curse be on them.
66 Pursue them in anger, and wipe them out from under the Lord’s heaven.”