Why Have You Forsaken Me?

To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

²O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,

and by night, but I find no rest.

³Yet you are holy,

enthroned on the praises1 of Israel.

⁴In you our fathers trusted;

they trusted, and you delivered them.

⁵To you they cried and were rescued;

in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

⁷All who see me mock me;

they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;

⁸“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;

let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

⁹Yet you are he who took me from the womb;

you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

¹⁰On you was I cast from my birth,

and from my mother's womb you have been my God.

¹¹Be not far from me,

for trouble is near,

and there is none to help.

¹²Many bulls encompass me;

strong bulls of Bashan surround me;

¹³they open wide their mouths at me,

like a ravening and roaring lion.

¹⁴I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint;

my heart is like wax;

it is melted within my breast;

¹⁵my strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to my jaws;

you lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶For dogs encompass me;

a company of evildoers encircles me;

they have pierced my hands and feet2—

¹⁷I can count all my bones—

they stare and gloat over me;

¹⁸they divide my garments among them,

and for my clothing they cast lots.

¹⁹But you, O Lord, do not be far off!

O you my help, come quickly to my aid!

²⁰Deliver my soul from the sword,

my precious life from the power of the dog!

²¹Save me from the mouth of the lion!

You have rescued3 me from the horns of the wild oxen!

²²I will tell of your name to my brothers;

in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

²³You who fear the Lord, praise him!

All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,

and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

²⁴For he has not despised or abhorred

the affliction of the afflicted,

and he has not hidden his face from him,

but has heard, when he cried to him.

²⁵From you comes my praise in the great congregation;

my vows I will perform before those who fear him.

²⁶The afflicted4 shall eat and be satisfied;

those who seek him shall praise the Lord!

May your hearts live forever!

²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember

and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

shall worship before you.

²⁸For kingship belongs to the Lord,

and he rules over the nations.

²⁹All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;

before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,

even the one who could not keep himself alive.

³⁰Posterity shall serve him;

it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;

³¹they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,

that he has done it.

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