New International Version NIV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Hear my prayer, LORD; let my cry for help 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 when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.
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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 vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers.
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I'm wasting away to nothing, I'm burning up with fever.
4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.
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I'm a ghost of my former self, half-consumed already by terminal illness.
5 In my distress I groan aloud and am reduced to skin and bones.
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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, like an owl among the ruins.
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I'm like a buzzard in the desert, a crow perched on the rubble.
7 I lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof.
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Insomniac, I twitter away, mournful as a sparrow in the gutter.
8 All day long my enemies taunt me; those who rail against me use my name as a curse.
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All day long my enemies taunt me, while others just curse.
9 For I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears
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They bring in meals - casseroles of ashes! I draw drink from a barrel of my tears.
10 because of your great wrath, for you have taken me up and thrown me aside.
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And all because of your furious anger; you swept me up and threw me out.
11 My days are like the 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, LORD, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations.
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Yet you, God, are sovereign still, always and ever sovereign.
13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to 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 her stones are dear to your servants; her very dust moves them to pity.
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Oh, how your servants love this city's rubble and weep with compassion over its dust!
15 The nations will fear the name of the LORD, all the kings of the earth will revere 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 will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.
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When God rebuilds Zion, when he shows up in all his glory,
17 He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.
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When he attends to the prayer of the wretched. He won't dismiss their prayer.
18 Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet 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 “The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed 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 and release those condemned to death.”
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He listened to the groans of the doomed, he opened the doors of their death cells."
21 So the name of the LORD will be declared in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem
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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 the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the LORD.
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And wherever people gather together along with their rulers to worship him.
23 In the course of my life he broke my strength; he cut short my days.
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God sovereignly brought me to my knees, he cut me down in my prime.
24 So I said: “Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through 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 In the beginning you laid the foundations 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 remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.
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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 remain the same, and your years will never end.
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but year after year you're as good as new.
28 The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will 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."
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
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.