Psalms — Chapter 88
A song. A psalm of the Korahites. For the leader; maḥalath leannoth.amaḥalath leannoth Meaning of Heb. uncertain. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
O ETERNAL One, God of my deliverance,when I cry out in the nightbwhen I cry out in the night Or “by day I cry out [and] by night.” before You,
let my prayer reach You;incline Your ear to my cry.
For I am sated with misfortune;I am at the brink of Sheol.
I am numbered with those who go down to the Pit;I am like someone helplessclike someone helpless Or “like a virile man who is helpless.”
abandoneddabandoned Lit. “released.” among the dead,like bodies lying in the graveof whom You are mindful no more,and who are cut off from Your care.
You have put me at the bottom of the Pit,in the darkest places, in the depths.
Your fury lies heavy upon me;You afflict me with all Your breakers. Selah.
You make my companions shun me;You make me abhorrent to them;I am shut in and do not go out.
My eyes pine away from affliction;I call to You, O ETERNAL One, each day;I stretch out my hands to You.
Do You work wonders for the dead?Do the shades rise to praise You? Selah.
Is Your faithful care recounted in the grave,Your constancy in the place of perdition?
Are Your wonders made known in the netherworld,enetherworld Lit. “darkness.” Your beneficent deeds in the land of oblivion?
As for me, I cry out to You, O ETERNAL One;each morning my prayer greets You.
Why, O ETERNAL One, do You reject me,do You hide Your face from me?
From my youth I have been afflictedand near death;I suffer Your terrors wherever I turn.fwherever I turn Following Saadia; meaning of Heb. uncertain.
Your fury overwhelms me;Your terrors destroy me.
They swirl about me like water all day long;they encircle me on every side.
You have put friend and neighbor far from meand my companions out of my sight.gout of my sight Lit. “into darkness.”
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Hadith (An-Nawawi 13)
“None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
Mahabharata 5.1517
“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself.”
Dhammapada 10:1
“All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.”
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277
“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”
Tao Te Ching 76
“A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. The soft and yielding is the disciple of life.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita 2:22
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.”
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
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Dhammapada 1:1-2
“Mind is the forerunner of all actions. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”
Bhagavad Gita 16:21
“There are three gates to self-destructive hell: lust, anger, and greed. Therefore, one must learn to give these up.”