Walking Through Darkness Without Light
3 1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath. 2 He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness without any light. 3 Surely against me he turns his hand again and again, all day long.
4 He has worn away my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones. 5 He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. 6 He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.
7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed down my chains. 8 Even when I call out and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. 9 He has blocked my ways with cut stones; he has made my paths crooked.
10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding. 11 He drove me off my path and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate. 12 He bent his bow and set me as the target for his arrow.
13 He drove the arrows of his quiver into my vitals. 14 I have become the laughingstock of all my people, their mocking song all day long. 15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with bitterness.
16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in the dust. 17 My soul has lost all peace; I have forgotten what happiness is. 18 So I say, "My endurance has perished, and so has my hope from our Father.
19 Remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall! a a v19 Wormwood is an intensely bitter plant; gall is a bitter, burning liquid — together they picture the deepest anguish. 20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. 21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 The covenant love of our Father never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 "Our Father is all I need," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him.
25 Our Father is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of our Father. 27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; 29 let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope; b b v29 Putting one's mouth in the dust was an ancient posture of complete humility and surrender before God. 30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and be filled with insults.
31 For the Sovereign Father will not abandon forever. 32 Though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his covenant love; 33 for he does not willingly afflict or grieve people. c c v33 Here is the turning point of the whole book: our Father does not wound from his heart. His judgment is real, but it is never what he delights in — his compassion always outlasts his discipline.
34 To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, 35 to deny a man justice in the sight of the Most High, 36 to deprive a man of justice in his case—the Sovereign Father does not approve.
37 Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Sovereign Father has commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamity and good come? 39 Why should a living man complain about the punishment for his sins?
40 Let us examine and test our ways, and return to our Father! 41 Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to our Father in heaven: 42 "We have sinned and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
43 You have wrapped yourself in anger and pursued us, killing without pity; 44 you have wrapped yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through. 45 You have made us scum and refuse among the peoples.
46 All our enemies open their mouths against us; 47 panic and pitfall have come upon us, devastation and destruction. 48 My eyes flow with streams of water over the destruction of my people.
49 My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, 50 until our Father looks down and sees from heaven. 51 My eyes bring grief to my soul at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52 I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies without cause; 53 they flung me alive into a pit and cast stones on me; 54 water closed over my head; I said, "I am lost.
55 I called on your name, my Father, from the depths of the pit; 56 you heard my plea: "Do not turn a deaf ear to my cry for help!
57 You came near on the day I called on you; you said, "Do not fear!
58 You have taken up my cause, Sovereign Father; you have redeemed my life. 59 You have seen the wrong done to me, my Father; judge my cause. 60 You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
61 You have heard their taunts, my Father, all their plots against me, 62 the lips and thoughts of my assailants against me all day long. 63 Watch their every move; I am the object of their mocking song.
64 You will repay them, my Father, according to the work of their hands. 65 You will give them hardness of heart; your curse will be on them. 66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of our Father.