Judaism
Psalms 88
Text
A Song, a Psalm of the sons of Korah; for the Leader; upon Mahalath Leannoth. Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.
O LORD, God of my salvation, What time I cry in the night before Thee,
Let my prayer come before Thee, Incline Thine ear unto my cry.
For my soul is sated with troubles, And my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am become as a man that hath no help;
Set apart among the dead, Like the slain that lie in the grave, Whom Thou rememberest no more; And they are cut off from Thy hand. .
Thou hast laid me in the nether-most pit, In dark places, in the deeps.
Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, And all Thy waves Thou pressest down. Selah
Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me; Thou hast made me an abomination unto them; I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
Mine eye languisheth by reason of affliction; I have called upon Thee, O LORD, every day, I have spread forth my hands unto Thee.
Wilt Thou work wonders for the dead? Or shall the shades arise and give Thee thanks? Selah
Shall Thy mercy be declared in the grave? Or Thy faithfulness in destruction?
Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? And Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
But as for me, unto Thee, O LORD, do I cry, And in the morning doth my prayer come to meet Thee.
LORD, why castest Thou off my soul? Why hidest Thou Thy face from me?
I am afflicted and at the point of death from my youth up; I have borne Thy terrors, I am distracted.
Thy fierce wrath is gone over me; Thy terrors have cut me off.
They came round about me like water all the day; They compassed me about together.
Friend and companion hast Thou put far from me, And mine acquaintance into darkness.
Text: The Holy Scriptures, Jewish Publication Society (1917), public domain, via Sefaria.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
Divine Compassion & Mercy
Quran 1:1
“In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.”
Luke 6:36
“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”
Snp 1.8 (trans. Bhikkhu Sujato)
“Even as a mother would protect with her life her child, her only child, so too for all creatures unfold a boundless heart.”
Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 1
“ik oankaar sat naam: one Creator, whose Name is Truth, beyond fear and enmity.”
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277 (trans. F. Max Müller)
“‘All created things perish,’ he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity.”
Tao Te Ching 76 (trans. James Legge)
“Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“Nay, but as when one layeth His worn-out robes away, And taking new ones, sayeth, "These will I wear to-day!" So putteth by the spirit Lightly its garb of flesh, And passeth to inherit A residence afresh.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
Dhammapada 2 (trans. Bhikkhu Sujato)
“Intention is the leader of things; intention is first, they’re made by intention. If with pure intent you speak or act, happiness follows you like a shadow that never leaves.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 16 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“The Doors of Hell Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass, The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three!”