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Psalm 37 (38)

The plea of a sinner in great peril
"All his friends stood at a distance" (Lk 23, 49).

O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger;
  do not punish me, Lord, in your rage.
Your arrows have sunk deep in me;
  your hand has come down upon me.

Through your anger all my body is sick:
  through my sin, there is no health in my limbs.
My guilt towers higher than my head;
  it is a weight too heavy to bear.

My wounds are foul and festering,
  the result of my own folly.
I am bowed and brought to my knees.
  I go mourning all the day long.

All my frame burns with fever;
  all my body is sick.
Spent and utterly crushed,
  I cry aloud in anguish of heart.

O Lord, you know all my longing:
  my groans are not hidden from you.
My heart throbs, my strength is spent;
  the very light has gone from my eyes.

My friends avoid me like a leper;
  those closest to me stand afar off.
Those who plot against my life lay snares;
  those who seek my ruin speak of harm,
  planning treachery all the day long.

But I am like the deaf who cannot hear,
  like the dumb unable to speak.
I am like a man who hears nothing
  in whose mouth is no defence.

I count on you, O Lord:
  it is you, Lord God, who will answer.
I pray: ‘Do not let them mock me,
  those who triumph if my foot should slip.’

For I am on the point of falling
  and my pain is always before me.
I confess that I am guilty
  and my sin fills me with dismay.

My wanton enemies are numberless
  and my lying foes are many.
They repay me evil for good
  and attack me for seeking what is right.

O Lord, do not forsake me!
  My God, do not stay afar off!
Make haste and come to my help,
  O Lord, my God, my saviour!