Psalms

¹Hear my prayer, LORD! Let my cry come to you. ²Don’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call. ³For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch. ⁴My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread. ⁵By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin. ⁶I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places. ⁷I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop. ⁸My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse. ⁹For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears, ¹⁰because of your indignation and your wrath; for you have taken me up and thrown me away. ¹¹My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass. ¹²But you, LORD, will remain forever; your renown endures to all generations. ¹³You will arise and have mercy on Zion, for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come. ¹⁴For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity on her dust. ¹⁵So the nations will fear the LORD’s name, all the kings of the earth your glory. ¹⁶For the LORD has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory. ¹⁷He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer. ¹⁸This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will praise the LORD, ¹⁹for he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, the LORD saw the earth, ²⁰to hear the groans of the prisoner, to free those who are condemned to death, ²¹that men may declare the LORD’s name in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem, ²²when the peoples are gathered together, the kingdoms, to serve the LORD. ²³He weakened my strength along the course. He shortened my days. ²⁴I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations. ²⁵Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands. ²⁶They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed. ²⁷But you are the same. Your years will have no end. ²⁸The children of your servants will continue. Their offspring will be established before you.”