God’s Steadfast Love Endures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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