³ Look at me!
    Answer me, Lord my God!
Restore sight to my eyes!
    Otherwise, I’ll sleep the sleep of death,
⁴         and my enemy will say, “I won!”
        My foes will rejoice over my downfall.

⁵ But I have trusted in your faithful love.
    My heart will rejoice in your salvation.
⁶ Yes, I will sing to the Lord
    because he has been good to me.

⁶ But I’m just a worm, less than human;
    insulted by one person, despised by another.
⁷ All who see me make fun of me—
    they gape, shaking their heads:
⁸     “He committed himself to the Lord,
        so let God rescue him;
        let God deliver him
        because God likes him so much.”
⁹ But you are the one who pulled me from the womb,
    placing me safely at my mother’s breasts.
¹⁰ I was thrown on you from birth;
    you’ve been my God
    since I was in my mother’s womb.
¹¹ Please don’t be far from me,
    because trouble is near
        and there’s no one to help.

¹² Many bulls surround me;
    mighty bulls from Bashan encircle me.
¹³ They open their mouths at me
    like a lion ripping and roaring!
¹⁴ I’m poured out like water.
    All my bones have fallen apart.
        My heart is like wax;
        it melts inside me.
¹⁵ My strength is dried up
    like a piece of broken pottery.
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    you’ve set me down in the dirt of death.
¹⁶ Dogs surround me;
    a pack of evil people circle me like a lion—
    oh, my poor hands and feet!
¹⁷ I can count all my bones!
    Meanwhile, they just stare at me, watching me.
¹⁸ They divvy up my garments among themselves;
    they cast lots for my clothes.

¹⁹ But you, Lord! Don’t be far away!
    You are my strength!
    Come quick and help me!
²⁰ Deliver me^[a] from the sword.
    Deliver my life from the power of the dog.
²¹     Save me from the mouth of the lion.
    From the horns of the wild oxen
    you have answered me!

²² I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
    I will praise you in the very center of the congregation!
²³ All of you who revere the Lord—praise him!
    All of you who are Jacob’s descendants—honor him!
    All of you who are all Israel’s offspring—
        stand in awe of him!
²⁴ Because he didn’t despise or detest
    the suffering of the one who suffered—
    he didn’t hide his face from me.
    No, he listened when I cried out to him for help.

²⁵ I offer praise in the great congregation
    because of you;
    I will fulfill my promises
    in the presence of those who honor God.
²⁶ Let all those who are suffering eat and be full!
    Let all who seek the Lord praise him!
        I pray your hearts live forever!
²⁷ Every part of the earth
    will remember and come back to the Lord;
    every family among all the nations will worship you.
²⁸ Because the right to rule belongs to the Lord,
    he rules all nations.
²⁹ Indeed, all the earth’s powerful
    will worship him;^[b]
    all who are descending to the dust
    will kneel before him;
    my being also lives for him.^[c]
30 Future descendants will serve him;
    generations to come will be told about my Lord.
³¹ They will proclaim God’s righteousness
        to those not yet born,
        telling them what God has done.

⁴ Lord God of heavenly forces,
    how long will you fume against your people’s prayer?
⁵ You’ve fed them bread made of tears;
    you’ve given them tears to drink three times over!
⁶ You’ve put us at odds with our neighbors;
    our enemies make fun of us.
⁷ Restore us, God of heavenly forces!
    Make your face shine so that we can be saved!

⁸ You brought a vine out of Egypt.
    You drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹ You cleared the ground for it;
    then it planted its roots deep, filling the land.
¹⁰ The mountains were covered by its shade;
    the mighty cedars were covered by its branches.
¹¹ It sent its branches all the way to the sea;
    its shoots went all the way to the Euphrates River.^[a]
12 So why have you now torn down its walls
    so that all who come along can pluck its fruit,
¹³     so that any boar from the forest can tear it up,
    so that the bugs can feed on it?

¹⁴ Please come back, God of heavenly forces!
    Look down from heaven and perceive it!
Attend to this vine,
¹⁵     this root that you planted with your strong hand,
    this son whom you secured as your very own.
¹⁶ It is burned with fire. It is chopped down.
    They die at the rebuke coming from you.
¹⁷ Let your hand be with the one on your right side—
    with the one whom you secured as your own—
¹⁸     then we will not turn away from you!
Revive us so that we can call on your name.
¹⁹     Restore us, Lord God of heavenly forces!
    Make your face shine so that we can be saved!

³ You return people to dust,
    saying, “Go back, humans,”
⁴     because in your perspective a thousand years
    are like yesterday past,
    like a short period during the night watch.
⁵ You sweep humans away like a dream,
    like grass that is renewed in the morning.
⁶ True, in the morning it thrives, renewed,
    but come evening it withers, all dried up.
⁷ Yes, we are wasting away because of your wrath;
    we are paralyzed with fear on account of your rage.
⁸ You put our sins right in front of you,
    set our hidden faults in the light from your face.
⁹ Yes, all our days slip away because of your fury;
    we finish up our years with a whimper.
¹⁰ We live at best to be seventy years old,
    maybe eighty, if we’re strong.
But their duration brings hard work and trouble
    because they go by so quickly.
    And then we fly off.
¹¹ Who can comprehend the power of your anger?
    The honor that is due you corresponds to your wrath.
¹² Teach us to number our days
    so we can have a wise heart.

¹³ Come back to us, Lord!
    Please, quick!
    Have some compassion for your servants!
¹⁴ Fill us full every morning with your faithful love
    so we can rejoice and celebrate our whole life long.
¹⁵ Make us happy for the same amount of time that you afflicted us—
    for the same number of years that we saw only trouble.
¹⁶ Let your acts be seen by your servants;
    let your glory be seen by their children.
¹⁷ Let the kindness of the Lord our God be over us.
    Make the work of our hands last.
    Make the work of our hands last!