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Psalm 88: Domine, Deus

Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 712. In the 30-day Psalter it is read on day 17, at Morning Prayer.

1

O LORD, my God, my Savior, *

by day and night I cry to you.

2

Let my prayer enter into your presence; *

incline your ear to my lamentation.

3

For I am full of trouble; *

my life is at the brink of the grave.

4

I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; *

I have become like one who has no strength;

5

Lost among the dead, *

like the slain who lie in the grave,

6

Whom you remember no more, *

for they are cut off from your hand.

7

You have laid me in the depths of the Pit, *

in dark places, and in the abyss.

8

Your anger weighs upon me heavily, *

and all your great waves overwhelm me.

9

You have put my friends far from me;

you have made me to be abhorred by them; *

I am in prison and cannot get free.

10

My sight has failed me because of trouble; *

LORD, I have called upon you daily;

I have stretched out my hands to you.

11

Do you work wonders for the dead? *

will those who have died stand up and give you thanks?

12

Will your loving-kindness be declared in the grave? *

your faithfulness in the land of destruction?

13

Will your wonders be known in the dark? *

or your righteousness in the country where all is forgotten?

14

But as for me, O LORD, I cry to you for help; *

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

15

LORD, why have you rejected me? *

why have you hidden your face from me?

16

Ever since my youth, I have been wretched and at the point of death; *

I have borne your terrors with a troubled mind.

17

Your blazing anger has swept over me; *

your terrors have destroyed me;

18

They surround me all day long like a flood; *

they encompass me on every side.

19

My friend and my neighbor you have put away from me, *

and darkness is my only companion.

When it is appointed