Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁴ Come back, Eternal One, and lead me to Your saving light.
    Rescue me because I know You are truly compassionate.
⁵ I’m alive for a reason—I can’t worship You if I’m dead.
    If I’m six feet under, how can I thank You?

⁶ I’m exhausted. I cannot even speak, my voice fading as sighs.
    Every day ends in the same place—lying in bed, covered in tears,
    my pillow wet with sorrow.
⁷ My eyes burn, devoured with grief;
    they grow weak as I constantly watch for my enemies.

⁸ All who are evil, stay away from me
    because the Eternal hears my voice, listens as I cry.
⁹ The Eternal God hears my simple prayers;
    He receives my request.
¹⁰ All who seek to destroy me will be humiliated;
    they will turn away and suddenly crumble in shame.

¹⁶     And now my own soul is drawn out, poured over me.
        The days of misery have taken hold of me;
        I am firmly in their grasp.
¹⁷     By night, my pain is at work, boring holes in my bones;
        it gnaws at me and never lies down to rest.
¹⁸     With great force, God wraps around me like my clothing.
        He binds tightly about my neck as if He were the collar of my tunic.^[a]
19     He has pushed me off into the mud,
        and I am reduced from man to dust and ashes.
²⁰     I call out to You, God, but You refuse to answer me.
        When I arise, You merely examine me.
²¹     You have changed.
        Now You are cruel to me;
        You employ Your strength to attack me.
²²     You pull me up into the wind and make me ride upon it
        until I am fractured and dissipated in the storm.
²³     I know where this ends.
        You will send me off to death
        and usher me to that meetinghouse where all the living one day go.

²⁴     And yet does not a person trapped in ruins stretch out his hand,
        and in this disaster does he not cry out for help?^[b]
25     Did I not grieve for the hard days of another
        or weep for the pains of the poor?
²⁶     And yet when I longed for the good, evil came;
        when I awaited the light, thick darkness arrived instead.
²⁷     I am boiling on the inside,
        and it will not quit;
        yet the days of misery still come for me.
²⁸     I drift in darkness, the sun absent;
        I arise in the assembly
        and call out for help.
²⁹     But who will come now that I am roaming the wilderness?
        I am a brother to jackals, a friend of ostriches.
³⁰     Despite my earnest cries, my skin burns until it is black and flakes off,
        and my bones burn with fever.
³¹     And so my harp is tuned to the key of mourning,
        and my flute is pitched to the sound of weeping.