The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 God, listen! Listen to my prayer, listen to the pain in my cries.
1
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.
2 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!
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Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.
3 I'm wasting away to nothing, I'm burning up with fever.
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For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
4 I'm a ghost of my former self, half-consumed already by terminal illness.
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My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.
5 My jaws ache from gritting my teeth; I'm nothing but skin and bones.
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By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.
6 I'm like a buzzard in the desert, a crow perched on the rubble.
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I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
7 Insomniac, I twitter away, mournful as a sparrow in the gutter.
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I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
8 All day long my enemies taunt me, while others just curse.
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Mine enemies reproach me all the day; and they that are mad against me are sworn against me.
9 They bring in meals - casseroles of ashes! I draw drink from a barrel of my tears.
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For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,
10 And all because of your furious anger; you swept me up and threw me out.
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Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.
11 There's nothing left of me - a withered weed, swept clean from the path.
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My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
12 Yet you, God, are sovereign still, always and ever sovereign.
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But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.
13 You'll get up from your throne and help Zion - it's time for compassionate help.
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Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.
14 Oh, how your servants love this city's rubble and weep with compassion over its dust!
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For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof.
15 The godless nations will sit up and take notice - see your glory, worship your name -
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So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.
16 When God rebuilds Zion, when he shows up in all his glory,
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When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
17 When he attends to the prayer of the wretched. He won't dismiss their prayer.
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He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
18 Write this down for the next generation so people not yet born will praise God:
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This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.
19 "God looked out from his high holy place; from heaven he surveyed the earth.
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For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;
20 He listened to the groans of the doomed, he opened the doors of their death cells."
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To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;
21 Write it so the story can be told in Zion, so God's praise will be sung in Jerusalem's streets
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To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
22 And wherever people gather together along with their rulers to worship him.
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When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
23 God sovereignly brought me to my knees, he cut me down in my prime.
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He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
24 "Oh, don't," I prayed, "please don't let me die. You have more years than you know what to do with!
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I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.
25 You laid earth's foundations a long time ago, and handcrafted the very heavens;
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Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
26 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,
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They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
27 but year after year you're as good as new.
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But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
28 Your servants' children will have a good place to live and their children will be at home with you."
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The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.
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.
The King James Version is in the public domain.