English Standard Version ESV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you!
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God, listen! Listen to my prayer, listen to the pain in my cries.
2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call!
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Don't turn your back on me just when I need you so desperately. Pay attention! This is a cry for help! And hurry - this can't wait!
3 For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.
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I'm wasting away to nothing, I'm burning up with fever.
4 My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread.
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I'm a ghost of my former self, half-consumed already by terminal illness.
5 Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh.
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My jaws ache from gritting my teeth; I'm nothing but skin and bones.
6 I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places;
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I'm like a buzzard in the desert, a crow perched on the rubble.
7 I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.
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Insomniac, I twitter away, mournful as a sparrow in the gutter.
8 All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse.
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All day long my enemies taunt me, while others just curse.
9 For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink,
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They bring in meals - casseroles of ashes! I draw drink from a barrel of my tears.
10 because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down.
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And all because of your furious anger; you swept me up and threw me out.
11 My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
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There's nothing left of me - a withered weed, swept clean from the path.
12 But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.
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Yet you, God, are sovereign still, always and ever sovereign.
13 You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come.
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You'll get up from your throne and help Zion - it's time for compassionate help.
14 For your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust.
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Oh, how your servants love this city's rubble and weep with compassion over its dust!
15 Nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
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The godless nations will sit up and take notice - see your glory, worship your name -
16 For the LORD builds up Zion; he appears in his glory;
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When God rebuilds Zion, when he shows up in all his glory,
17 he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer.
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When he attends to the prayer of the wretched. He won't dismiss their prayer.
18 Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
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Write this down for the next generation so people not yet born will praise God:
19 that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
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"God looked out from his high holy place; from heaven he surveyed the earth.
20 to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die,
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He listened to the groans of the doomed, he opened the doors of their death cells."
21 that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise,
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Write it so the story can be told in Zion, so God's praise will be sung in Jerusalem's streets
22 when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.
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And wherever people gather together along with their rulers to worship him.
23 He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days.
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God sovereignly brought me to my knees, he cut me down in my prime.
24 "O my God,"I say, "take me not away in the midst of my days-- you whose years endure throughout all generations!"
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"Oh, don't," I prayed, "please don't let me die. You have more years than you know what to do with!
25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
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You laid earth's foundations a long time ago, and handcrafted the very heavens;
26 They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
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You'll still be around when they're long gone, threadbare and discarded like an old suit of clothes. You'll throw them away like a worn-out coat,
27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.
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but year after year you're as good as new.
28 The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.
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Your servants' children will have a good place to live and their children will be at home with you."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.