Psalm 95

Common English Bible

Psalm 95

95 Come, let’s sing out loud to the Lord!
    Let’s raise a joyful shout to the rock of our salvation!
²Let’s come before him with thanks!
    Let’s shout songs of joy to him!
³The Lord is a great God,
    the great king over all other gods.
⁴The earth’s depths are in his hands;
    the mountain heights belong to him;
⁵    the sea, which he made, is his
        along with the dry ground,
        which his own hands formed.

⁶Come, let’s worship and bow down!
    Let’s kneel before the Lord, our maker!
⁷He is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the sheep in his hands.

If only you would listen to his voice right now!
⁸    “Don’t harden your hearts
    like you did at Meribah,
    like you did when you were at Massah,
        in the wilderness,
⁹    when your ancestors tested me
        and scrutinized me,
    even though they had already seen my acts.
¹⁰For forty years I despised that generation;
    I said, ‘These people have twisted hearts.
    They don’t know my ways.’
¹¹So in anger I swore:
    ‘They will never enter my place of rest!’”

Psalm 88

Common English Bible

Psalm 88

A song. A psalm of the Korahites. For the music leader. According to “Mahalath Leannoth.”^[a] A maskil^[b] of Heman the Ezrahite.

88 Lord, God of my salvation,
    by day I cry out,
    even at night, before you—
²    let my prayer reach you!
Turn your ear to my outcry
³    because my whole being^[c] is filled with distress;
    my life is at the very brink of hell.^[d]

⁴I am considered as one of those plummeting into the pit.
    I am like those who are beyond help,
⁵    drifting among the dead,
    lying in the grave, like dead bodies—
    those you don’t remember anymore,
    those who are cut off from your power.
⁶You placed me down in the deepest pit,
    in places dark and deep.
⁷Your anger smothers me;
    you subdue me with it, wave after wave. Selah
⁸You’ve made my friends distant.
    You’ve made me disgusting to them.
    I can’t escape. I’m trapped!
⁹My eyes are tired of looking at my suffering.
    I’ve been calling out to you every day, Lord—
    I’ve had my hands outstretched to you!

¹⁰Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do ghosts rise up and give you thanks? Selah

¹¹Is your faithful love proclaimed in the grave,
your faithfulness in the underworld?^[e]
¹²Are your wonders known in the land of darkness,
your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

¹³But I cry out to you, Lord!
    My prayer meets you first thing in the morning!
¹⁴Why do you reject my very being, Lord?
    Why do you hide your face from me?
¹⁵Since I was young I’ve been afflicted, I’ve been dying.
    I’ve endured your terrors. I’m lifeless.
¹⁶Your fiery anger has overwhelmed me;
    your terrors have destroyed me.
¹⁷They surround me all day long like water;
    they engulf me completely.
¹⁸You’ve made my loved ones and companions distant.
    My only friend is darkness.