1. O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried to You for help by day; at night I am in Your presence. [Luke 18:7.]
2. Let my prayer come before You and really enter into Your presence; incline Your ear to my cry!
3. For I am full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol (the place of the dead).
4. I am counted among those who go down into the pit (the grave); I am like a man who has no help or strength [a mere shadow],
5. Cast away among the dead, like the slain that lie in a [nameless] grave, whom You [seriously] remember no more, and they are cut off from Your hand.
6. You have laid me in the depths of the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
7. Your wrath lies hard upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! [Ps. 42:7.]
8. You have put my [familiar] friends far from me; You have made me an abomination to them. I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
9. My eye grows dim because of sorrow and affliction. Lord, I have called daily on You; I have spread forth my hands to You.
10. Will You show wonders to the dead? Shall the departed arise and praise You? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
11. Shall Your steadfast love be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon (Sheol, as a place of ruin and destruction)?
12. Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the place of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?
13. But to You I cry, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer come to meet You.
14. Lord, why do You cast me off? Why do You hide Your face from me? [Matt. 27:46.]
15. I was afflicted and close to death from my youth up; while I suffer Your terrors I am distracted [I faint].
16. Your fierce wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.
17. They surround me like a flood all day long; together they have closed in upon me.
18. Lover and friend have You put far from me; my familiar friends are darkness and the grave.