✧A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Suffering of Affliction.” A contemplation by Heman, the Ezrahite. LORD, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you. ✧2Let my prayer enter into your presence. Turn your ear to my cry. ✧3For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol. ✧4I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help, ✧5set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand. ✧6You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. ✧7Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah. ✧8You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape. ✧9My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, LORD. I have spread out my hands to you. ✧10Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah. ✧11Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction? ✧12Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? ✧13But to you, LORD, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you. ✧14LORD, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? ✧15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted. ✧16Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off. ✧17They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me. ✧18You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.