A prayer of the afflicted when he is over- whelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.
1 LORD, hear my supplication,
and let my cry come thee unto:
2 I’th day when trouble is on me,
thy face hide not away me fro:
Thine ear to me do thou incline,
i'th day I cry, soon answer me:
3 For as the smoke my days consume,
and like an hearth my bones burnt be.
4 My heart is smote, and dried like grass,
that I to eat my bread forget:
5 By reason of my groanings voice
my bones unto my skin are set.
6 Like Pelican in wilderness,
like Owl in desert so am I:
7 I watch, and like a sparrow am
on house top solitarily.
8 Mine enemies daily me reproach:
‘gainst me they rage, ‘gainst me they swear:
9 That I do ashes eat for bread:
and mix my drink with weeping-tear.
10 By reason of thy fervent wrath
and of thy vehement-disdain:
for thou hast high advanced me,
and thou hast cast me down again.
(2)
11 My days as shadow that decline:
and like the withered grass am I.
12 But thou, Lord, dost abide for aye:
and thy Name to eternity.
13 Thou wilt arise, and wilt shew forth
thy tender-mercy on Sion:
for it is time to favour her,
yea the set time is now come on.
14 For in her stones thy servants do
take pleasure, and her dust pity.
15 And heathens shall the Lords Name fear,
and all Kings of th’ earth thy glory.
16 When as the Lord shall Sion build
he in his glory shall appear.
17 The poor’s petition he’ll regard,
and he will not despise their pray’r.
18 This shall in writing be enroll’d
for the succeeding-after-race:
that people also which shall be
created, they the Lord may praise.
19 For from his Sanctuary high
from heavn’s the Lord the earth doth see:
20 To hear the groans of prisoners:
to loose them that deaths children be.
21 The Lords praise in Jerusalem:
his Name is Sion to record.
22 when people are together met,
and Kingdoms for to serve the Lord.
(3)
23 He weakened hath i'th way my strength,
and shortened my days hath he.
24 I said, in middest of my days
my God do not away take me:
Thy years throughout all ages are.
25 Thou hast the earth’s foundation laid
for elder time: and heavens be
the work which thine own hands have made.
26 They perish shall, but thou shalt stand:
they all as garments shall decay:
and as a wearing-vestment
thou shalt then change, and chang’d are they.
27 But thou are ev’n the same: thy years
they never shall consumed be.
28 Thy servants children shall abide,
and their seed stablisht before thee.