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.’