* - denotes footnote

Psalm 88

10 Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead?
  Do the dead rise up and praise you?    Interlude

11 Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love?
  Can they proclaim your faithfulness in the place of destruction?*
12 Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds?
  Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness?
13 O LORD, I cry out to you.
  I will keep on pleading day by day.
14 O LORD, why do you reject me?
  Why do you turn your face from me?

15 I have been sick and close to death since my youth.
  I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.
16 Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me.
  Your terrors have paralyzed me.
17 They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long.
  They have engulfed me completely.
18 You have taken away my companions and loved ones.
  Darkness is my closest friend.

Footnotes: