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15 Dec 25-21 Dec 25

1 I am the man who has seen affliction  under the rod of his wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me  into darkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand  again and again the whole day long.

4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;  he has broken my bones;
5 he has besieged and enveloped me  with bitterness and tribulation;
6 he has made me dwell in darkness  like the dead of long ago.

7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;  he has made my chains heavy;
8 though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;  he has made my paths crooked.

10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.

13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
14 I have become the laughingstock of all my people, the object of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness[b] is;
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
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 steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he 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;
30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults.

31 For the Lord will not cast off forever,
32 for, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 

33 for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.