1 A Song. A Psalm for the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician. On Mahalath, to make humble. A Poem of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before You.

2 Let my prayer come before You; bow down Your ear to my cry.

3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near the grave.

4 I am counted with those who go down to the Pit; I am like a feeble man;

5 free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom You remember no more; and by Your hand they are cut off.

6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

7 Your wrath lies hard on me, and You have afflicted [me] with all Your waves. Selah.

8 You have taken my friends away from me; You have made me a hateful thing to them. [I am] shut up, and I cannot go out.

9 My eye mourns because of affliction; O LORD, I have called daily on You; I have stretched out my hands to You.

10 For will You do wonders to the dead? Shall the dead rise [and] praise You? Selah.

11 Shall Your loving-kindness be declared in the grave? [Or] Your faithfulness in ruin?

12 Shall Your wonders be known in the dark, and Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

13 But to You I have cried, O LORD; and in the morning my prayer shall go before You.

14 O LORD, why do You cast off my soul? [Why] do You hide Your face from me?

15 I [am] afflicted and ready to die from my youth up; while I suffer Your terrors, I pine away.

16 Your fierce wrath goes over me; Your terrors have cut me off.

17 They surrounded me like waters all the day long; they have come together around me.

18 You have taken lover and friend far from me, [and] those who know me into darkness.