102:1   Listen to my prayer, O LORD, and hear my cry for help!

102:2   When I am in trouble, don't turn away from me! Listen to me, and answer me quickly when I call!

102:3   My life is disappearing like smoke; my body is burning like fire.

102:4   I am beaten down like dry grass; I have lost my desire for food.

102:5   I groan aloud; I am nothing but skin and bones.

102:6   I am like a wild bird in the desert, like an owl in abandoned ruins.

102:7   I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on a housetop.

102:8   All day long my enemies insult me; those who mock me use my name in cursing.

102:9   Because of your anger and fury, ashes are my food, and my tears are mixed with my drink. You picked me up and threw me away.

102:10   (SEE 102:9)

102:11   My life is like the evening shadows; I am like dry grass.

102:12   But you, O LORD, are king forever; all generations will remember you.

102:13   You will rise and take pity on Zion; the time has come to have mercy on her; this is the right time.

102:14   Your servants love her, even though she is destroyed; they have pity on her, even though she is in ruins.

102:15   The nations will fear the LORD; all the kings of the earth will fear his power.

102:16   When the LORD rebuilds Zion, he will reveal his greatness.

102:17   He will hear his forsaken people and listen to their prayer.

102:18   Write down for the coming generation what the LORD has done, so that people not yet born will praise him.

102:19   The LORD looked down from his holy place on high, he looked down from heaven to earth.

102:20   He heard the groans of prisoners and set free those who were condemned to die.

102:21   And so his name will be proclaimed in Zion, and he will be praised in Jerusalem

102:22   when nations and kingdoms come together and worship the LORD.

102:23   The LORD has made me weak while I am still young; he has shortened my life.

102:24   O God, do not take me away now before I grow old. O LORD, you live forever;

102:25   long ago you created the earth, and with your own hands you made the heavens.

102:26   They will disappear, but you will remain; they will all wear out like clothes. You will discard them like clothes, and they will vanish.

102:27   But you are always the same, and your life never ends.

102:28   Our children will live in safety, and under your protection their descendants will be secure.