The Prayer of a Troubled Youth
1 Listen to my prayer, O Lord,
and hear my cry for help!
2 When I am in trouble,
don't turn away from me!
Listen to me,
and answer me quickly when I call!
3 My life is disappearing like smoke;
my body is burning like fire.
4 I am beaten down like dry grass;
I have lost my desire for food.
5 I groan aloud;
I am nothing but skin and bones.
6 I am like a wild bird in the desert,
like an owl in abandoned ruins.
7 I lie awake;
I am like a lonely bird on a housetop.
8 All day long my enemies insult me;
those who mock me use my name in cursing.
9-10 Because of your anger and fury,
ashes are my food,
and my tears are mixed with my drink.
You picked me up and threw me away.
11 My life is like the evening shadows;
I am like dry grass.
12 But you, O Lord, are king forever;
all generations will remember you.
13 You will rise and take pity on Zion;
the time has come to have mercy on her;
this is the right time.
14 Your servants love her,
even though she is destroyed;
they have pity on her,
even though she is in ruins.
15 The nations will fear the Lord;
all the kings of the earth will fear his power.
16 When the Lord rebuilds Zion,
he will reveal his greatness.
17 He will hear his forsaken people
and listen to their prayer.
18 Write down for the coming generation what the Lord has done,
so that people not yet born will praise him.
19 The Lord looked down from his holy place on high,
he looked down from heaven to earth.
20 He heard the groans of prisoners
and set free those who were condemned to die.
21 And so his name will be proclaimed in Zion,
and he will be praised in Jerusalem
22 when nations and kingdoms come together
and worship the Lord.
23 The Lord has made me weak while I am still young;
he has shortened my life.
24 O God, do not take me away now
before I grow old.
O Lord, you live forever;
25 long ago you created the earth,
and with your own hands you made the heavens.
26 They will disappear, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like clothes.
You will discard them like clothes,
and they will vanish.
27 But you are always the same,
and your life never ends.
28 Our children will live in safety,
and under your protection
their descendants will be secure.
1 A prayer of the afflicted, when he shall be in distresse, and pour forth his meditation before the Lord. O Lord, heare my prayer, and let my crye come vnto thee. 2 Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble: incline thine eares vnto me: when I call, make haste to heare me. 3 For my dayes are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burnt like an herthe. 4 Mine heart is smitten and withereth like grasse, because I forgate to eate my bread. 5 For the voyce of my groning my bones doe cleaue to my skinne. 6 I am like a pelicane of the wildernesse: I am like an owle of the deserts. 7 I watch and am as a sparrowe alone vpon the house top. 8 Mine enemies reuile me dayly, and they that rage against me, haue sworne against me. 9 Surely I haue eaten asshes as bread, and mingled my drinke with weeping, 10 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast heaued me vp, and cast me downe. 11 My dayes are like a shadowe that fadeth, and I am withered like grasse. 12 But thou, O Lord, doest remaine for euer, and thy remembrance from generation to generation. 13 Thou wilt arise and haue mercy vpon Zion: for the time to haue mercie thereon, for the appointed time is come. 14 For thy seruants delite in the stones thereof, and haue pitie on the dust thereof. 15 Then the heathen shall feare the Name of the Lord, and all the Kings of the earth thy glory, 16 When the Lord shall build vp Zion, and shall appeare in his glory, 17 And shall turne vnto the prayer of the desolate, and not despise their prayer. 18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people, which shalbe created, shall prayse the Lord. 19 For he hath looked downe from the height of his Sanctuarie: out of the heauen did the Lord beholde the earth, 20 That he might heare the mourning of the prisoner, and deliuer the children of death: 21 That they may declare the Name of the Lord in Zion, and his prayse in Ierusalem, 22 When the people shalbe gathered together, and the kingdomes to serue the Lord. 23 He abated my strength in the way, and shortened my dayes. 24 And I sayd, O my God, take me not away in the middes of my dayes: thy yeeres endure from generation to generation. 25 Thou hast aforetime layde the foundation of the earth, and the heauens are the worke of thine hands. 26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: euen they all shall waxe olde as doeth a garment: as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. 27 But thou art the same, and thy yeeres shall not fayle. 28 The children of thy seruants shall continue, and their seede shall stand fast in thy sight.