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Psalm 88

1  O Lord, God of my salvation, ♦︎
   I have cried day and night before you.
2  Let my prayer come into your presence; ♦︎
   incline your ear to my cry.
3  For my soul is full of troubles; ♦︎
   my life draws near to the land of death.
4  I am counted as one gone down to the Pit; ♦︎
   I am like one that 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 lowest pit, ♦︎
   in a place of darkness in the abyss.
8  Your anger lies heavy upon me, ♦︎
   and you have afflicted me with all your waves.
9  You have put my friends far from me ♦︎
   and made me to be abhorred by them.
10  I am so fast in prison that I cannot get free; ♦︎
   my eyes fail from all my trouble.
11  Lord, I have called daily upon you; ♦︎
   I have stretched out my hands to you.
12  Do you work wonders for the dead? ♦︎
   Will the shades stand up and praise you?
13  Shall your loving-kindness be declared in the grave, ♦︎
   your faithfulness in the land of destruction?
14  Shall your wonders be known in the dark ♦︎
   or your righteous deeds in the land where all is forgotten?
15  But as for me, O Lord, I will cry to you; ♦︎
   early in the morning my prayer shall come before you.
16  Lord, why have you rejected my soul? ♦︎
   Why have you hidden your face from me?
17  I have been wretched and at the point of death from my youth; ♦︎
   I suffer your terrors and am no more seen.
18  Your wrath sweeps over me; ♦︎
   your horrors are come to destroy me;
19  All day long they come about me like water; ♦︎
   they close me in on every side.
20  Lover and friend have you put far from me ♦︎
   and hid my companions out of my sight.

Psalm 88

Prayer for Help in Despondency

A Song. A Psalm of the Korahites. To the leader: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
¹ O Lord, God of my salvation,
   when, at night, I cry out in your presence,
² let my prayer come before you;
   incline your ear to my cry.

³ For my soul is full of troubles,
   and my life draws near to Sheol.
⁴ I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;
   I am like those who have no help,
⁵ like those forsaken among the dead,
   like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
   for they are cut off from your hand.
⁶ You have put me in the depths of the Pit,
   in the regions dark and deep.
⁷ Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
   and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
          Selah

⁸ You have caused my companions to shun me;
   you have made me a thing of horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
⁹   my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call on you, O Lord;
   I spread out my hands to you.
¹⁰ Do you work wonders for the dead?
   Do the shades rise up to praise you?
          Selah

Interlude: Where Wisdom Is Found

28‘Surely there is a mine for silver,
   and a place for gold to be refined.
² Iron is taken out of the earth,
   and copper is smelted from ore.
³ Miners put^* an end to darkness,
   and search out to the farthest bound
   the ore in gloom and deep darkness.
⁴ They open shafts in a valley away from human habitation;
   they are forgotten by travellers,
   they sway suspended, remote from people.
⁵ As for the earth, out of it comes bread;
   but underneath it is turned up as by fire.
⁶ Its stones are the place of sapphires,^*
   and its dust contains gold.

⁷ ‘That path no bird of prey knows,
   and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.
⁸ The proud wild animals have not trodden it;
   the lion has not passed over it.

⁹ ‘They put their hand to the flinty rock,
   and overturn mountains by the roots.
¹⁰ They cut out channels in the rocks,
   and their eyes see every precious thing.
¹¹ The sources of the rivers they probe;^*
   hidden things they bring to light.

¹² ‘But where shall wisdom be found?
   And where is the place of understanding?
¹³ Mortals do not know the way to it,^*
   and it is not found in the land of the living.
¹⁴ The deep says, “It is not in me”,
   and the sea says, “It is not with me.”
¹⁵ It cannot be bought for gold,
   and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
¹⁶ It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
   in precious onyx or sapphire.^*
17 Gold and glass cannot equal it,
   nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
¹⁸ No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;
   the price of wisdom is above pearls.
¹⁹ The chrysolite of Ethiopia^* cannot compare with it,
   nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰ ‘Where then does wisdom come from?
   And where is the place of understanding?
²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of all living,
   and concealed from the birds of the air.
²² Abaddon and Death say,
   “We have heard a rumour of it with our ears.”

²³ ‘God understands the way to it,
   and he knows its place.
²⁴ For he looks to the ends of the earth,
   and sees everything under the heavens.
²⁵ When he gave to the wind its weight,
   and apportioned out the waters by measure;
²⁶ when he made a decree for the rain,
   and a way for the thunderbolt;
²⁷ then he saw it and declared it;
   he established it, and searched it out.
²⁸ And he said to humankind,
“Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
   and to depart from evil is understanding.” ’

The Works of God in Nature

¹⁵ I will now call to mind the works of the Lord,
   and will declare what I have seen.
By the word of the Lord his works are made;
   and all his creatures do his will.^*
16 The sun looks down on everything with its light,
   and the work of the Lord is full of his glory.
¹⁷ The Lord has not empowered even his holy ones
   to recount all his marvellous works,
which the Lord the Almighty has established
   so that the universe may stand firm in his glory.
¹⁸ He searches out the abyss and the human heart;
   he understands their innermost secrets.
For the Most High knows all that may be known;
   he sees from of old the things that are to come.^*
19 He discloses what has been and what is to be,
   and he reveals the traces of hidden things.
²⁰ No thought escapes him,
   and nothing is hidden from him.
²¹ He has set in order the splendours of his wisdom;
   he is from all eternity one and the same.
Nothing can be added or taken away,
   and he needs no one to be his counsellor.
²² How desirable are all his works,
   and how sparkling they are to see!^*
23 All these things live and remain for ever;
   each creature is preserved to meet a particular need.^*
24 All things come in pairs, one opposite to the other,
   and he has made nothing incomplete.
²⁵ Each supplements the virtues of the other.
   Who could ever tire of seeing his glory?

17 By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, ¹⁸of whom he had been told, ‘It is through Isaac that descendants shall be named after you.’ ¹⁹He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead—and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. ²⁰By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future on Jacob and Esau. ²¹By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, ‘bowing in worship over the top of his staff.’ ²²By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his burial.^*

The Faith of Moses

23 By faith Moses was hidden by his parents for three months after his birth, because they saw that the child was beautiful; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.^{* 24}By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ²⁵choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶He considered abuse suffered for the Christ^* to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the reward. ²⁷By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king’s anger; for he persevered as though^* he saw him who is invisible. ²⁸By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.^*

The Faith of Other Israelite Heroes

29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. ³⁰By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. ³¹By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient,^* because she had received the spies in peace.

The Parable of the Rich Fool

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ ¹⁴But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ ¹⁵And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ ¹⁶Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” ¹⁸Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ²⁰But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’