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God’s Steadfast Love Endures

3I am one who has seen affliction
   under the rod of God’s ^* wrath;
² he has driven and brought me
   into darkness without any light;
³ against me alone he turns his hand,
   again and again, all day long.

⁴ He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,
   and broken my bones;
⁵ he has besieged and enveloped me
   with bitterness and tribulation;
⁶ he has made me sit in darkness
   like the dead of long ago.

⁷ He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
   he has put heavy chains on me;
⁸ though I call and cry for help,
   he shuts out my prayer;
⁹ he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,
   he has made my paths crooked.

¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait for me,
   a lion in hiding;
¹¹ he led me off my way and tore me to pieces;
   he has made me desolate;
¹² he bent his bow and set me
   as a mark for his arrow.

¹³ He shot into my vitals
   the arrows of his quiver;
¹⁴ I have become the laughing-stock of all my people,
   the object of their taunt-songs all day long.
¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness,
   he has glutted me with wormwood.

¹⁶ He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
   and made me cower in ashes;
¹⁷ my soul is bereft of peace;
   I have forgotten what happiness is;
¹⁸ so I say, ‘Gone is my glory,
   and all that I had hoped for from the Lord.’

¹⁹ The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
   is wormwood and gall!
²⁰ My soul continually thinks of it
   and is bowed down within me.
²¹ But this I call to mind,
   and therefore I have hope:

²² The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,^*
   his mercies never come to an end;
²³ they are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
   ‘therefore I will hope in him.’

²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
   to the soul that seeks him.
²⁶ It is good that one should wait quietly
   for the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷ It is good for one to bear
   the yoke in youth,
²⁸ to sit alone in silence
   when the Lord has imposed it,
²⁹ to put one’s mouth to the dust
   (there may yet be hope),
³⁰ to give one’s cheek to the smiter,
   and be filled with insults.

³¹ For the Lord will not
   reject for ever.
³² Although he causes grief, he will have compassion
   according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
³³ for he does not willingly afflict
   or grieve anyone.

³⁴ When all the prisoners of the land
   are crushed under foot,
³⁵ when human rights are perverted
   in the presence of the Most High,
³⁶ when one’s case is subverted
   —does the Lord not see it?

³⁷ Who can command and have it done,
   if the Lord has not ordained it?
³⁸ Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
   that good and bad come?
³⁹ Why should any who draw breath complain
   about the punishment of their sins?

⁴⁰ Let us test and examine our ways,
   and return to the Lord.
⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts as well as our hands
   to God in heaven.
⁴² We have transgressed and rebelled,
   and you have not forgiven.

⁴³ You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
   killing without pity;
⁴⁴ you have wrapped yourself with a cloud
   so that no prayer can pass through.
⁴⁵ You have made us filth and rubbish
   among the peoples.

⁴⁶ All our enemies
   have opened their mouths against us;
⁴⁷ panic and pitfall have come upon us,
   devastation and destruction.
⁴⁸ My eyes flow with rivers of tears
   because of the destruction of my people.

⁴⁹ My eyes will flow without ceasing,
   without respite,
⁵⁰ until the Lord from heaven
   looks down and sees.
⁵¹ My eyes cause me grief
   at the fate of all the young women in my city.

⁵² Those who were my enemies without cause
   have hunted me like a bird;
⁵³ they flung me alive into a pit
   and hurled stones on me;
⁵⁴ water closed over my head;
   I said, ‘I am lost.’

⁵⁵ I called on your name, O Lord,
   from the depths of the pit;
⁵⁶ you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear
   to my cry for help, but give me relief!’
⁵⁷ You came near when I called on you;
   you said, ‘Do not fear!’

⁵⁸ You have taken up my cause, O Lord,
   you have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹ You have seen the wrong done to me, O Lord;
   judge my cause.
⁶⁰ You have seen all their malice,
   all their plots against me.

⁶¹ You have heard their taunts, O Lord,
   all their plots against me.
⁶² The whispers and murmurs of my assailants
   are against me all day long.
⁶³ Whether they sit or rise—see,
   I am the object of their taunt-songs.

⁶⁴ Pay them back for their deeds, O Lord,
   according to the work of their hands!
⁶⁵ Give them anguish of heart;
   your curse be on them!
⁶⁶ Pursue them in anger and destroy them
   from under the Lord’s heavens.