Great Is Your Faithfulness
aI am the man who has seen affliction
under the brod of his wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me
ainto darkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
ahe has broken my bones;
5 ahe has besieged and enveloped me
with bbitterness and tribulation;
6 ahe has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
7 aHe has walled me about so that bI cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
8 though aI call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
9 ahe has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
10 aHe is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
11 ahe turned aside my steps and btore me to pieces;
che has made me desolate;
12 ahe bent his bow band set me
as a target for his arrow.
13 He drove into my kidneys
athe arrows of his quiver;
14 aI have become the laughingstock of all my people,
bthe object of their taunts all day long.
15 aHe has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with bwormwood.
16 aHe has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and bmade me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
18 aso I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.”
19 aRemember my affliction and my wanderings,
bthe wormwood and cthe gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
aand is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and atherefore I have hope:
22 aThe steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
ahis mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new aevery morning;
bgreat is your faithfulness.
24 a“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
b“therefore I will hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who await for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 aIt is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 aIt is good for a man that he bear
the yoke bin his youth.
28 Let him asit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
29 alet him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
30 alet him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
31 aFor the Lord will not
cast off forever,
32 for, though he acause grief, bhe will have compassion
caccording to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 afor he does not afflict from his heart
or bgrieve the children of men.
34 To crush underfoot
all athe prisoners of the earth,
35 ato deny a man justice
in the presence of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his lawsuit,
athe Lord does not approve.
37 aWho has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 aIs it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
39 aWhy should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
40 Let us test and examine our ways,
aand return to the Lord!
41 aLet us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven:
42 a“We have transgressed and brebelled,
and you have not forgiven.
43 “You have wrapped yourself with anger and pursued us,
akilling without pity;
44 ayou have wrapped yourself with a cloud
so that no prayer can pass through.
45 aYou have made us scum and garbage
among the peoples.
46 a“All our enemies
open their mouths against us;
47 apanic and pitfall have come upon us,
devastation and bdestruction;
48 amy eyes flow with rivers of tears
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
49 a“My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
50 auntil the Lord from heaven
looks down and sees;
51 my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52 a“I have been hunted blike a bird
by those who were my enemies cwithout cause;
53 athey flung me alive into the pit
band cast stones on me;
54 awater closed over my head;
I said, b‘I am lost.’
55 a“I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit;
56 ayou heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
57 aYou came near when I called on you;
you said, b‘Do not fear!’
58 “You have ataken up my cause, bO Lord;
you have aredeemed my life.
59 You have seen the wrong done to me, aO Lord;
judge my cause.
60 You have seen all their vengeance,
all atheir plots against me.
61 a“You have heard their taunts, O Lord,
all btheir plots against me.
62 The lips and thoughts aof my assailants
are against me all the day long.
63 aBehold their sitting and their rising;
bI am the object of their taunts.
64 a“You will repay them, O Lord,
baccording to the work of their hands.
65 You will give them dullness of heart;
your curse will be on them.
66 You will pursue them in anger and adestroy them
from under byour heavens, O Lord.”