To the Director: To the tune ofa “Doe of the Dawn”.
A Davidic Psalm.

God Delivers His Suffering Servant

1My God! My God!

Why have you abandoned me?

Why are you so far from delivering me—

from my groaning words?

2My God, I cry out to you throughout the day,

but you do not answer;

and throughout the night,

but I have no rest.b

3You are holy,

enthroned on the praises of Israel.

4Our ancestors trusted in you;

they trusted and you delivered them.

5They cried out to you and escaped;

they trusted in you and were not put to shame.

6But as for me,

I am only a worm and not a man,

scorned by mankind and despised by people.

7Everyone who sees me mocks me;

they gape at me with open mouths

and shake their heads at me.

8They say,c “Commit yourself to the LORD;

perhaps the LORDd will deliver him,

perhaps he will cause him to escape,

since he delights in him.”

9Yet, you are the one who took me from the womb,

and kept me safe on my mother’s breasts.

10I was dependent on you from birth;

from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11Do not be so distant from me,

for trouble is at hand;

indeed, there is no deliverer.

12Many bulls have surrounded me;

the vicious bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

13Their mouths are opened wide toward me,

like roaring and attacking lions.

14I am poured out like water;

all my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax, melting within me.

15My strength is dried up like broken pottery;

my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth,e

and you have brought me down to the dust of death.

16For dogs have surrounded me;

a gang of those who practice of evil has encircled me.

They gougedf my hands and myg feet.

17I can count all my bones.

They look at me;

they stare at me.

18They divide my clothing among themselves;

they cast lots for my clothing!

19But as for you, LORD, do not be far away from me;

My Strength, come quickly to help me.

20Deliver me from the sword;

my precious life from the power of the dog.

21Deliver me from the mouth of the lion,

from the horns of the wild oxen.

You have answered me.

22I will declare your name to my brothers;

in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you, saying,h

23“All who fear the LORD, praise him!

All the seed of Jacob, glorify him!

All the seed of Israel, fear him!

24For he does not despise nor detest the afflicted person;

he does not hide his face from him,

but he hears him when he cries out to him.”

25My praise in the great congregation is because of you;

I will pay my vows before those who fear you.i

26The afflicted will eat and be satisfied;

those who seek the LORD will praise him,

“May youj live forever!”

27All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD;

all the families of the nations will bow in submission to the LORD.

28Indeed, the kingdom belongs to the LORD;

he rules over the nations.

29All the prosperous people will eat and bow down in submission.

All those who are about to go down to the gravek

will bow down in submission,

along with the one who can no longer keep himself alive.

30Ourl descendants will serve him,

and that generation will be told about the Lord.

31They will come and declare his righteousness

to a people yet to be born;

indeed, he has accomplished it!