1 My God! O my God! Have you left me alone?
Why have you forsaken me, deaf to my groan?
2 I cry to you daily and plead late at night,
but you do not answer or pity my plight.
3 Yet you are the Holy One, Israel’s King,
4 to whom all our fathers and mothers did sing.
5 They counted on you to come through when they prayed;
whenever they trusted, then you always saved.
6 Yet I am a worm who is laughed at and mocked,
7 despised by the godless who saunter about.
8 “His help is the LORD! Foolish fellow,” they sneer,
“let God set him free since he holds him so dear.”
9 Since I was a baby, dependent and weak,
10 I nestled in safety, LORD, close to your cheek.
11 Please don’t go away, for deep trouble is near!
Who else can secure me and keep away fear?
12 Surrounding brute beasts make me shudder with fright,
13 and jaws of fierce lions are ready to bite.
14 My bones seem disjointed, I can’t catch my breath
15 my heart melts like wax, and I face cruel death.
16 Like dogs they surround me, I cringe and I groan;
they pierce through my hands and my feet to the bone.
17 They measure me out for the kill, as they gloat.
18 They scatter their dice for my garments and coat.
19 My God! O my God! Do not leave me exposed.
20 Voracious, these dogs only deepen my woes.
21 These beasts, mad with violence, want me to die:
O stop them, Almighty, and answer my cry!
The psalm continues with Psalm 22B.
– Calvin Seerveld, alt.
Oremus 