The speaker is a man who has seen affliction, and describes it as being walled in, shot with arrows and made bitter. Then he recalls: it is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.
1 I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath .
2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness , but not into light .
3 Surely against me is he turned ; he turneth his hand against me all the day .
4 My flesh and my skin hath he made old ; he hath broken my bones .
5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail .
6 He hath set me in dark places , as they that be dead of old .
7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out : he hath made my chain heavy .
8 Also when I cry and shout , he shutteth out my prayer .
9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone , he hath made my paths crooked .
10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait , and as a lion in secret places .
11 He hath turned aside my ways , and pulled me in pieces : he hath made me desolate .
12 He hath bent his bow , and set me as a mark for the arrow .
13 He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins .
14 I was a derision to all my people ; and their song all the day .
15 He hath filled me with bitterness , he hath made me drunken with wormwood .
16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones , he hath covered me with ashes .
17 And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace : I forgat prosperity .
18 And I said , My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD :
19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery , the wormwood and the gall .
20 My soul hath them still in remembrance , and is humbled in me.
21 This I recall to my mind , therefore have I hope .
22 It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed , because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning : great is thy faithfulness .
24 The LORD is my portion , saith my soul ; therefore will I hope in him.
25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD .
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth .
28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence , because he hath borne it upon him.
29 He putteth his mouth in the dust ; if so be there may be hope .
30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach .
31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever :
32 But though he cause grief , yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies .
33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men .
34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth ,
35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High ,
36 To subvert a man in his cause , the Lord approveth not.
37 Who is he that saith , and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good ?
39 Wherefore doth a living man complain , a man for the punishment of his sins ?
40 Let us search and try our ways , and turn again to the LORD .
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens .
42 We have transgressed and have rebelled : thou hast not pardoned .
43 Thou hast covered with anger , and persecuted us: thou hast slain , thou hast not pitied .
44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud , that our prayer should not pass through .
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people .
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction .
48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people .
49 Mine eye trickleth down , and ceaseth not, without any intermission ,
50 Till the LORD look down , and behold from heaven .
51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city .
52 Mine enemies chased me sore , like a bird , without cause .
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon , and cast a stone upon me.
54 Waters flowed over mine head ; then I said , I am cut off .
55 I called upon thy name , O LORD , out of the low dungeon .
56 Thou hast heard my voice : hide not thine ear at my breathing , at my cry .
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst , Fear not.
58 O Lord , thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul ; thou hast redeemed my life .
59 O LORD , thou hast seen my wrong : judge thou my cause .
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.
61 Thou hast heard their reproach , O LORD , and all their imaginations against me;
62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day .
63 Behold their sitting down , and their rising up ; I am their musick .
64 Render unto them a recompence , O LORD , according to the work of their hands .
65 Give them sorrow of heart , thy curse unto them.
66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD .