Psalms 22

For the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A psalm of David.

1My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you far from saving me, far from the words of my roaring?

2My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but there is no silence for me.

3Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

4In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.

5To you they cried out and were delivered; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6But I am a worm and not a man, an object of human scorn and despised by the people.

7All who see me mock me; they sneer with the lip; they shake the head.

8“Commit yourself to Yahweh; let him rescue him; let him deliver him, since he delights in him!”

9For you are the one who brought me out from the womb, making me secure at my mother’s breasts.

10On you I was cast from the womb; from my mother’s belly you are my God.

11Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, for there is no helper.

12Many bulls surround me; mighty bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13They open their mouths against me like a lion tearing and roaring.

14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart has become like wax, melted within me.

15My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

16For dogs have surrounded me; a company of evildoers has encircled me; like a lion—my hands and my feet.

17I can count all my bones; they look, they stare at me.

18They divide my garments among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.

19But you, Yahweh, do not be far away; my strength, hurry to help me.

20Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.

21Save me from the mouth of the lion, and from the horns of the wild oxen—you have answered me.

22I will declare your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.

23You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All offspring of Jacob, honor him! Stand in awe of him, all offspring of Israel!

24For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard.

25From you comes my praise in the great assembly; I will pay my vows before those who fear him.

26The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; those who seek him will praise Yahweh. May your hearts live forever.

27All the ends of the earth will remember and return to Yahweh, and all the families of the nations will bow down before you.

28For the kingdom belongs to Yahweh, and he rules over the nations.

29All the prosperous of the earth will eat and bow down; before him all who go down to the dust will kneel—even he who could not keep himself alive.

30Posterity will serve him; it will be told of the Lord to the generation.

31They will come and declare his righteousness to a people yet to be born—that he has done it.