1I cried aloud to God,
I cried to God, and he heard me. 2In the day of my distress I sought the Lord,
and by night I lifted I lifted: prob. rdg, Heb omitted my outspread hands in prayer.
I lay sweating and nothing would cool me;
I refused all comfort. 3When I called God to mind, I groaned;
as I lay thinking, darkness came over my spirit. 4My eyelids were tightly closed;
I was dazed and I could not speak. 5My thoughts went back to times long past,
I remembered forgotten years; 6all night long I was in deep distress,
as I lay thinking, my spirit was sunk in despair.
7Will the Lord reject us for evermore
and never again show favour? 8Has his unfailing love now failed us utterly,
must his promise time and again be unfulfilled? 9Has God forgotten to be gracious,
has he in anger withheld his mercies? 10'Has his right hand', I said, 'lost its grasp?
Does it hang powerless lost ... powerless: prob. rdg, Heb unintelligible, the arm of the Most High?'
11But then, O LORD, I call to mind thy deeds prob. rdg, Heb then I call to mind the deeds of the LORD, for
I recall thy wonderful acts in times gone by. 12I meditate upon thy works
and muse on all that thou hast done. 13O God, thy way is holy;
what god is so great as our God? 14Thou art the God who workest miracles;
thou hast shown the nations thy power. 15With thy strong arm thou didst redeem thy people,
the sons of Jacob and Joseph.
16The waters saw thee, O God,
they saw thee and writhed in anguish;
the ocean was troubled to its depths. 17The clouds poured water, the skies thundered,
thy arrows flashed hither and thither. 18The sound of thy thunder was in the whirlwind Or in the chariot-wheels,
thy lightnings lit up the world,
earth shook and quaked. 19Thy path was through the sea, thy way through mighty waters,
and no man marked thy footsteps. 20Thou didst guide thy people like a flock of sheep,
under the hand of Moses and Aaron.