Readings

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? *and are so far from my cry and from the words of my distress?

²O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer; *by night as well, but I find no rest.

³Yet you are the Holy One, *enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

⁴Our forefathers put their trust in you; *they trusted, and you delivered them.

⁵They cried out to you and were delivered; *they trusted in you and were not put to shame.

⁶But as for me, I am a worm and no man, *scorned by all and despised by the people.

⁷All who see me laugh me to scorn; *they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,

⁸“He trusted in the Lord; let him deliver him; *let him rescue him, if he delights in him.”

⁹Yet you are he who took me out of the womb, *and kept me safe upon my mother’s breast.

¹⁰I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born; *you were my God when I was still in my mother’s womb.

¹¹Be not far from me, for trouble is near, *and there is none to help.

¹²Many young bulls encircle me; *strong bulls of Bashan surround me.

¹³They open wide their jaws at me, *like a ravening and a roaring lion.

¹⁴I am poured out like water; all my bones are out of joint; *my heart within my breast is melting wax.

¹⁵My mouth is dried out like a pot-sherd; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; *and you have laid me in the dust of the grave.

¹⁶Packs of dogs close me in, and gangs of evildoers circle around me; *they pierce my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones.

¹⁷They stare and gloat over me; *they divide my garments among them; they cast lots for my clothing.

¹⁸Be not far away, O Lord; *you are my strength; hasten to help me.

¹⁹Save me from the sword, *my life from the power of the dog.

²⁰Save me from the lion’s mouth, *my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.

²¹I will declare your Name to my brethren; *in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

²²Praise the Lord, you that fear him; *stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel; all you of Jacob’s line, give glory.

²³For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty; neither does he hide his face from them; *but when they cry to him he hears them.

²⁴My praise is of him in the great assembly; *I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.

²⁵The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: *“May your heart live for ever!”

²⁶All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, *and all the families of the nations bow before him.

²⁷For kingship belongs to the Lord; *he rules over the nations.

²⁸To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down in worship; *all who go down to the dust fall before him.

²⁹My soul shall live for him; my descendants shall serve him; *they shall be known as the Lord’s for ever.

³⁰They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *the saving deeds that he has done.