TO THE CHIEF MUSICIAN
UPON AIJELETH SHAHAR,
A PSALM OF DAVID.
My God,
my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?
why art thou so far from helping me,
and from the words of my roaring?
O my God,
I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not;
and in the night season,
and am not silent.
But thou art holy,
O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
Our fathers trusted in thee:
they trusted,
and thou didst deliver them.
They cried unto thee,
and were delivered:
they trusted in thee,
and were not confounded.
But I am a worm,
and no man;
a reproach of men,
and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn:
they shoot out the lip,
they shake the head,
saying,
He trusted on the LORD
that he would deliver him:
let him deliver him,
seeing he delighted in him.
But thou art he that took me out of the womb:
thou didst make me hope
when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
I was cast upon thee from the womb:
thou art my God from my mother’s belly.
Be not far from me;
for trouble is near;
for there is none to help.
Many bulls have compassed me:
strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
They gaped upon me with their mouths,
as a ravening and a roaring lion.
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint:
my heart is like wax;
it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;
and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me:
the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me:
they pierced my hands and my feet.
I may tell all my bones:
they look and stare upon me.
They part my garments among them,
and cast lots upon my vesture.
But be not thou far from me,
O LORD:
O my strength,
haste thee to help me.
Deliver my soul from the sword;
my darling from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth:
for thou hast heard me
from the horns of the unicorns.
I will declare thy name
unto my brethren:
in the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee.
Ye that fear the LORD,
praise him;
all ye the seed of Jacob,
glorify him;
and fear him,
all ye the seed of Israel.
For he hath not despised
nor abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted;
neither hath he hid his face from him;
but when he cried unto him,
he heard.
My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation:
I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
The meek shall eat and be satisfied:
they shall praise the LORD that seek him:
your heart shall live for ever.
All the ends of the world shall remember
and turn unto the LORD:
and all the kindreds of the nations
shall worship before thee.
For the kingdom is the LORD’S:
and he is the governor among the nations.
All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship:
all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him:
and none can keep alive his own soul.
A seed shall serve him;
it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
They shall come,
and shall declare his righteousness
unto a people that shall be born,
that he hath done this.
Psalm 22