For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David.
The Hebrew title · Berean Standard Bible
For the choirmaster
About this psalm
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me — the words Jesus spoke from the cross. What follows was written long before crucifixion was practised and describes it anyway: they pierced my hands and my feet, they part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. The psalm does not stay there. It turns partway through and ends with a people not yet born being told what God has done.
Read it slowly, and read it all the way to the end.
1My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?2O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not;and in the night season, and am not silent.3But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.4Our fathers trusted in thee:they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.5They cried unto thee, and were delivered:they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.6But I am a worm, and no man;a reproach of men, and despised of the people.7All they that see me laugh me to scorn:they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,8He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him:let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.9But thou art he that took me out of the womb:thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.10I was cast upon thee from the womb:thou art my God from my mother’s belly.11Be not far from me;for trouble is near;for there is none to help.12Many bulls have compassed me:strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.13They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint:my heart is like wax;it is melted in the midst of my bowels.15My strength is dried up like a potsherd;and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.16For dogs have compassed me:the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me:they pierced my hands and my feet.17I may tell all my bones:they look and stare upon me.18They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.19But be not thou far from me, O LORD:O my strength, haste thee to help me.20Deliver my soul from the sword;my darling from the power of the dog.21Save me from the lion’s mouth:for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.22I will declare thy name unto my brethren:in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.23Ye that fear the LORD, praise him;all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him;and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.24For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;neither hath he hid his face from him;but when he cried unto him, he heard.25My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation:I will pay my vows before them that fear him.26The meek shall eat and be satisfied:they shall praise the LORD that seek him:your heart shall live for ever.27All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD:and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.28For the kingdom is the LORD’s:and he is the governor among the nations.29All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship:all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him:and none can keep alive his own soul.30A seed shall serve him;it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.31They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.