For the Chief Musician; set to “The Doe of the Morning.” A Psalm by David.

• ¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?

• ²My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer;
• in the night season, and am not silent.

• ³But you are holy,
• you who inhabit the praises of Israel.

• ⁴Our fathers trusted in you.
• They trusted, and you delivered them.

• ⁵They cried to you, and were delivered.
• They trusted in you, and were not disappointed.

• ⁶But I am a worm, and no man;
• a reproach of men, and despised by the people.

• ⁷All those who see me mock me.
• They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
• ⁸“He trusts in Yahweh;
• let him deliver him.
• Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”

• ⁹But you brought me out of the womb.
• You made me trust at my mother’s breasts.

• ¹⁰I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb.
• You are my God since my mother bore me.

• ¹¹Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near.
• For there is none to help.

• ¹²Many bulls have surrounded me.
• Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

• ¹³They open their mouths wide against me,
• lions tearing prey and roaring.

• ¹⁴I am poured out like water.
• All my bones are out of joint.

• My heart is like wax;
• it is melted within me.

• ¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd.
• My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

• You have brought me into the dust of death.

• ¹⁶For dogs have surrounded me.
• A company of evildoers have enclosed me.
• They have pierced my hands and feet. *So Dead Sea Scrolls. Masoretic Text reads, “Like a lion, they pin my hands and feet.”

• ¹⁷I can count all of my bones.

• They look and stare at me.

• ¹⁸They divide my garments among them.
• They cast lots for my clothing.

• ¹⁹But don’t be far off, Yahweh.
• You are my help: hurry to help me.

• ²⁰Deliver my soul from the sword,
• my precious life from the power of the dog.

• ²¹Save me from the lion’s mouth!
• Yes, from the horns of the wild oxen, you have answered me.

• ²²I will declare your name to my brothers.
• In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you.

• ²³You who fear Yahweh, praise him!
• All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him!
• Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!

• ²⁴For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
• Neither has he hidden his face from him;
• but when he cried to him, he heard.

• ²⁵Of you comes my praise in the great assembly.
• I will pay my vows before those who fear him.

• ²⁶The humble shall eat and be satisfied.
• They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him.
• Let your hearts live forever.

• ²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh.
• All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you.

• ²⁸For the kingdom is Yahweh’s.
• He is the ruler over the nations.

• ²⁹All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship.
• All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him,
• even he who can’t keep his soul alive.

• ³⁰Posterity shall serve him.
• Future generations shall be told about the Lord.

• ³¹They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born,
• for he has done it.