Domin•• Deus. Psal. lxxxviii.
LOrd God of health, the hope and stay
thou art alone to me:
I call and cry throughout the day
and all the night to thee.
[verse 2] O let my prayer soon ascend
unto thy sight on high:
Incline thine ear, O Lord, attend
and hearken to my cry.
[verse 3] For why? with wo my heart is fill'd,
and doth in trouble dwell:
My life and breath almost doth yeeld,
and draweth nigh to hell.
[verse 4] I am esteem'd as one of them
that in the pit do fall:
And made as one among those men
that have no strength at all.
[verse 5] As one among the dead, and free
from things that here remain:
It were more ease for me to be
with them the which are slain:
[verse 6] As those that lie in grave, I say,
whom thou hast clean forgot:
The which thy hand hath cut away,
and thou regard'st them not.
[verse 7] Yea, like to one shut up full sure
within the lower pit,
In places dark and all obscure,
and in the depth of it.
[verse 8] Thine anger and thy wrath likewise
full sore on me doth ly:
And all thy storms against me rise,
my soul to vex and try.
[verse 9] Thou putt'st my friends sar off from me,
and mak'st them hate me sore:
I am shut up in prison fast,
and can come forth no more.
[verse 10] My sight doth fail through grief and wo,
I call to thee, O God:
Throughout the day my hands also
to thee I stretch abroad.
The second part.
[verse 11] Dost thou unto the dead declare
thy wondrous works of fame?
Shall dead to life again repair,
and praise thee for the same?
[verse 12] Or shall thy loving kindness, Lord,
be preached in the grave?
Or shall with them that are destroy'd
thy truth her honour have?
[verse 13] Shall they that lie in dark full low
of all thy wonders wot?
Or there shall they thy justice know
where all things are forgot?
[verse 14] But I, O Lord, to thee always
do cry and call apace:
My prayer eke ere it be day
shall come before thy face.
[verse 15] Why dost thou, Lord, abhor my soul,
in grief that seeketh thee?
And now, O Lord, why dost thou hide
thy face away from me?
[verse 16] I am afflict, as dying still
from youth this many a year:
The terrours which do vex me ill
with troubled minde I bear.
[verse 17] The furies of thy wrathful rage
full sore upon me fall:
Thy terrours eke do not asswage,
but me oppress withal.
[verse 18] All day they compass me about,
as water at the tide:
And all at once with streams full stout
beset me on each side.
[verse 19] Thou settest far from me friends
and lovers every one:
Yea, and mine old acquaintance all
out of my sight are gone.