88:1  O LORD, the God of my salvation, I have cried to You for help by day; at night I am in Your presence.

88:2  Let my prayer come before You {and} really enter into Your presence; incline Your ear to my cry!

88:3  For I am full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol (the place of the dead).

88:4  I am counted among those who go down into the pit (the grave); I am like a man who has no help {or} strength [a mere shadow],

88:5  Cast away among the dead, like the slain that lie in a [nameless] grave, whom You [seriously] remember no more, and they are cut off from Your hand.

88:6  You have laid me in the depths of the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

88:7  Your wrath lies hard upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

88:8  You have put my [familiar] friends far from me; You have made me an abomination to them. I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

88:9  My eye grows dim because of sorrow {and} affliction. Lord, I have called daily on You; I have spread forth my hands to You.

88:10  Will You show wonders to the dead? Shall the departed arise and praise You? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

88:11  Shall Your steadfast love be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon (Sheol, as a place of ruin and destruction)?

88:12  Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the place of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?

88:13  But to You I cry, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer come to meet You.

88:14  Lord, why do You cast me off? Why do You hide Your face from me?

88:15  I was afflicted and close to death from my youth up; while I suffer Your terrors I am distracted [I faint].

88:16  Your fierce wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.

88:17  They surround me like a flood all day long; together they have closed in upon me.

88:18  Lover and friend have You put far from me; my familiar friends are darkness {and} the grave.