Yearning to be free

O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.

For your arrows have pierced me,
and your hand has come down upon me.

Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;
my bones have no soundness because of my sin.

My guilt has overwhelmed me
like a burden too heavy to bear.

My wounds fester and are loathsome
because of my sinful folly.

I am bowed down and brought very low;
all day long I go about mourning.

My back is filled with searing pain;
there is no health in my body.

I am feeble and utterly crushed;
I groan in anguish of heart.

All my longings lie open before you, O Lord;
my sighing is not hidden from you.

My heart pounds, my strength fails me;
even the light has gone from my eyes.

…

I am like a deaf man, who cannot hear,
like a mute, who cannot open his mouth;

I have become like a man who does not hear,
whose mouth can offer no reply.

I wait for you, O LORD;
you will answer, O Lord my God.

…

For I am about to fall,
and my pain is ever with me.

I confess my iniquity;
I am troubled by my sin.

…

O LORD, do not forsake me;
be not far from me, O my God.

Come quickly to help me,
O Lord my Savior.

- Psalm 38