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Psalms 88:2-13

Psalms 88:1-18 The Message (MSG)

GOD, you’re my last chance of the day. I spend the night on my knees before you. Put me on your salvation agenda; take notes on the trouble I’m in. I’ve had my fill of trouble; I’m camped on the edge of hell. I’m written off as a lost cause, one more statistic, a hopeless case. Abandoned as already dead, one more body in a stack of corpses, And not so much as a gravestone— I’m a black hole in oblivion. You’ve dropped me into a bottomless pit, sunk me in a pitch-black abyss. I’m battered senseless by your rage, relentlessly pounded by your waves of anger. You turned my friends against me, made me horrible to them. I’m caught in a maze and can’t find my way out, blinded by tears of pain and frustration. I call to you, GOD; all day I call. I wring my hands, I plead for help. Are the dead a live audience for your miracles? Do ghosts ever join the choirs that praise you? Does your love make any difference in a graveyard? Is your faithful presence noticed in the corridors of hell? Are your marvelous wonders ever seen in the dark, your righteous ways noticed in the Land of No Memory? I’m standing my ground, GOD, shouting for help, at my prayers every morning, on my knees each daybreak. Why, GOD, do you turn a deaf ear? Why do you make yourself scarce? For as long as I remember I’ve been hurting; I’ve taken the worst you can hand out, and I’ve had it. Your wildfire anger has blazed through my life; I’m bleeding, black-and-blue. You’ve attacked me fiercely from every side, raining down blows till I’m nearly dead. You made lover and neighbor alike dump me; the only friend I have left is Darkness.

Psalms 88:2-13 The Passion Translation (TPT)

Please bend down and listen to my sobbing, for my life is riddled with troubles and death is just around the corner! Everyone sees my life ebbing out. They consider me a hopeless case and see me as a dead man. They’ve all left me here to die, helpless, like one who is doomed for death. They’re convinced you’ve forsaken me, certain that you’ve forgotten me completely— abandoned, pierced, with nothing to look forward to but death. They have discarded me and thrown me down into the deepest darkness as into a bottomless pit. I feel your wrath, and it’s a heavy weight upon me, drowning me beneath a sea of sorrow. Pause in his presence Why did you turn all my friends against me? You’ve made me like a cursed man in their eyes. No one wants to be with me now. You’ve caught me in a trap with no way out. Every day I beg for your help. Can’t you see my tears? My eyes are swollen with weeping. My arms are wide, longing for mercy, but you’re nowhere to be found. How can those who are cut off from your care even know that you are there? Do departed spirits rise up to praise you? Pause in his presence Who can give thanks for your love in the graveyard? Who preaches your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Does death’s darkness declare your miracles? How can anyone who’s in the grave, where all is forgotten, remember how you keep your promises? Lord, you know my prayer before I even whisper it. At each and every sunrise you will continue to hear my cry until you answer.