101
(102) A Prayer for the Poor; when he is deeply afflicted, and pours out his supplication before the Lord.
1 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to you.
2 Turn not away your face from me: in the day when I am afflicted, incline your ear to me: in the day when I shall call upon you, speedily hear me.
3 For my days have vanished like smoke, and my bones have been parched like a stick.
4 I am blighted like grass, and my heart is dried up; for I have forgotten to eat my bread.
5 By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bone has cleaved to my flesh.
6 I have become like a pelican of the wilderness;
7 I have become like an owl in a ruined house. I have watched, and am become as a sparrow dwelling alone on a roof.
8 All the day long my enemies have reproached me; and they that praised me have sworn against me.
9 For I have eaten ashes as it were bread, and mingled my drink with weeping;
10 because of your anger and your wrath: for you have lifted me up, and dashed me down.
11 My days have declined like a shadow; and I am withered like grass.
12 But you, Lord, endure for ever, and your memorial to generation and generation.
13 You shall arise, and have mercy upon Sion: for it is time to have mercy upon her, for the set time is come.
14 For your servants have taken pleasure in her stones, and they shall pity her dust.
15 So the nations shall fear your name, O Lord, and all kings your glory.
16 For the Lord shall build up Sion, * and shall appear in his glory.
17 He has had regard to the prayer of the lowly, and has not despised their petition.
18 Let this be written for another generation; and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord.
19 For he has looked out from the height of his sanctuary; the Lord looked upon the earth from heaven;
20 to hear the groaning of the fettered ones, to loosen the sons of the slain;
21 to proclaim the name of the Lord in Sion, and his praise in Jerusalem;
22 when the people are gathered together, and the kings, to serve the Lord.
23 He answered him in the way of his strength: tell me the fewness of my days.
24 Take me not away in the midst of my days: your years are ✡ through all generations.
25 In the † beginning you, O Lord, did lay the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of your hands.
26 They shall perish, but you remain: and they all shall wax old as a garment; and as a vesture shall you fold them, and they shall be changed.
27 But you are the same, and your years shall not fail.
28 The children of your servants shall dwell securely, and their seed shall ‡ prosper for ever.
* 101:16 Or, then shall be. ✡ 101:24 Heb 1:11,13 † 101:25 Gr. plural. ‡ 101:28 Or, be directed aright.