Read the Bible

¹ Listen to my prayer, O Lord,
    and hear my cry for help!
² When I am in trouble,
    don't turn away from me!
Listen to me,
    and answer me quickly when I call!

³ My life is disappearing like smoke;
    my body is burning like fire.
⁴ I am beaten down like dry grass;
    I have lost my desire for food.
⁵ I groan aloud;
    I am nothing but skin and bones.
⁶ I am like a wild bird in the desert,
    like an owl in abandoned ruins.
⁷ I lie awake;
    I am like a lonely bird on a housetop.
⁸ All day long my enemies insult me;
    those who mock me use my name in cursing.^9-10 Because of your anger and fury,
    ashes are my food,
    and my tears are mixed with my drink.
You picked me up and threw me away.<
¹¹ My life is like the evening shadows;
    I am like dry grass.

¹² But you, O Lord, are king forever;
    all generations will remember you.
¹³ You will rise and take pity on Zion;
    the time has come to have mercy on her;
    this is the right time.
¹⁴ Your servants love her,
    even though she is destroyed;
they have pity on her,
    even though she is in ruins.

¹⁵ The nations will fear the Lord;
    all the kings of the earth will fear his power.
¹⁶ When the Lord rebuilds Zion,
    he will reveal his greatness.
¹⁷ He will hear his forsaken people
    and listen to their prayer.

¹⁸ Write down for the coming generation what the Lord has done,
    so that people not yet born will praise him.
¹⁹ The Lord looked down from his holy place on high,
    he looked down from heaven to earth.
²⁰ He heard the groans of prisoners
    and set free those who were condemned to die.
²¹ And so his name will be proclaimed in Zion,
    and he will be praised in Jerusalem
²²     when nations and kingdoms come together
    and worship the Lord.

²³ The Lord has made me weak while I am still young;
    he has shortened my life.
²⁴ O God, do not take me away now
    before I grow old.

O Lord, you live forever;
^25 (a)long ago you created the earth,
    and with your own hands you made the heavens.
²⁶ They will disappear, but you will remain;
    they will all wear out like clothes.
You will discard them like clothes,
    and they will vanish.
²⁷ But you are always the same,
    and your life never ends.
²⁸ Our children will live in safety,
    and under your protection
    their descendants will be secure.