1 ¶ Bow down your ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.

2 Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O my God, save your servant who trusts in you.

3 Be merciful to me, O Lord: for I cry to you daily.

4 Give your servant joy: for I lift my heart up to you, O Lord.

5 For you, Lord, are kind, ready to forgive; and full of mercy for all those who call on you.

6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; and hear my plea for mercy.

7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon you: for you will answer me.

8 ¶ Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; nor are there any works like your works.

9 All nations whom you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; and will glorify your name.

10 For you are great, and do wondrous things: you alone are God.

11 Teach me your way, O LORD; I will walk in your truth: unite my heart to fear your name.

12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify your name for evermore.

13 For great is your mercy toward me: and you have delivered my soul from the lowest hell.

14 O God, the proud have risen against me, and a violent mob has sought my life; they have no respect for you.

15 But you, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, kind, longsuffering, and full of mercy and truth.

16 O turn to me, and have mercy upon me; give your servant strength, and save the son of your handmaid.

17 Show me a sign of your goodness; so that those who hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because you, LORD, have helped me, and comforted me.

Psalm 87

A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.

1 ¶ His foundation is on the holy mountains.

2 The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

3 Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Selah.

4 ¶ I will count Egypt and Babylon among those who acknowledge me: there is Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia; and each man says he was born there.

5 But of Zion it will be said, Every man was born in her: and the highest himself will establish her.

6 When the LORD registers the people, he will record, This one was born there. Selah.

7 There will be singing and dancing, for all will find their home in you.

Psalm 88

A Song or Psalm by the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician

Set to chant mournfully, a reflective Psalm by Heman the Ezrahite.

1 ¶ O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried to you day and night:

2 Let my prayer come before you: incline your ear to my cry;

3 For my soul is full of trouble: and my life draws near to the grave.

4 I am counted with those who go down into the pit: I am like a man with no strength:

5 Cast away among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more: and are cut off from your hand.

6 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

7 Your anger lies heavily upon me, and you have afflicted me with all of your waves. Selah.

8 You have alienated my friends from me; you have made me an abomination to them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

9 My eyes get weak because of grief: LORD, I have called daily upon you, I have stretched out my hands to you.

10 ¶ Will you show wonders to the dead? will the dead arise and praise you? Selah.

11 Does anyone in the grave tell about your loving-kindness? or your faithfulness in that place of decay?

12 Does anyone in that dark place know of your wonders? do they know of your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

13 But I cry to you, O LORD; and in the morning my prayer will come up to meet you.

14 LORD, why do you reject me? why do you hide your face from me?

15 I have been suffering and close to death from my youth: while I suffer your terrors I am desperate.

16 Your fierce wrath sweeps over me; your terrors have silenced me.

17 All day long they surround me like a flood; they close in on me from every side.

18 You have alienated loved one and neighbor from me, and my only friend is darkness.