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The Book of Psalms in English Metre

The Newest Version Fitted to the Common Tunes. By Charles Darby

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140

Psalm LXXXVIII.

1

To thee my Saviour and my Lord,
I cry both night and day:
O let my words before thee come,
And hear me when I pray.

2

My soul is troubled very sore,
My life is near the grave:
I am like those already dead,
And who no power have.

3

I free among the dead men am,
That slain and buried lie:
Who by thy hand are quite cut off,
And out of memory.

4

In lowest pit thou hast me laid,
And darkest dungeon thrown:
Thy wrath upon me lieth hard,
Thy waves have prest me down.

5

My old acquaintance me forsake,
They hate and loath me so:
As one unclean I am shut up,
And forth I cannot go.

6

My eye doth mourn continually,
So great my sorrows be:
And every day I stretch my hands,
And thus I cry to thee.

7

Wilt thou thy wonders shew, O Lord,
To them that lie in dust?
Shall they arise and tell the world
That thou art good and just?

141

8

Can they in graves thy wonders know,
Where bodies lie and rot?
Or see thy goodness in the land,
Where all things are forgot?

9

But I have cry'd to thee, O Lord,
And early will I pray:
O why then dost thou cast me off,
And turn thy face away?

10

I am afflicted from my youth,
And ready am to die,
I am almost beside my self,
Thou dost so terrifie.

11

Thy fierce wrath goeth over me,
Thy terrors strike me dead:
And I by floods of enemies,
Am daily compassed.

12

Thou hast removed far from me,
My lover and my friend:
My old acquaintance hide themselves,
And will no succour lend.