1: Take a deep breath, GOD; calm down--don't be so hasty with your punishing rod.
2: Your sharp-pointed arrows of rebuke draw blood; my backside smarts from your caning.
3: I've lost twenty pounds in two months because of your accusation. My bones are brittle as dry sticks because of my sin.
4: I'm swamped by my bad behavior, collapsed under gunnysacks of guilt.
5: The cuts in my flesh stink and grow maggots because I've lived so badly.
6: And now I'm flat on my face feeling sorry for myself morning to night.
7: All my insides are on fire, my body is a wreck.
8: I'm on my last legs; I've had it--my life is a vomit of groans.
9: Lord, my longings are sitting in plain sight, my groans an old story to you.
10: My heart's about to break; I'm a burned-out case. Cataracts blind me to God and good;
11: old friends avoid me like the plague. My cousins never visit, my neighbors stab me in the back.
12: My competitors blacken my name, devoutly they pray for my ruin.
13: But I'm deaf and mute to it all, ears shut, mouth shut.
14: I don't hear a word they say, don't speak a word in response.
15: What I do, GOD, is wait for you, wait for my Lord, my God--you will answer!
16: I wait and pray so they won't laugh me off, won't smugly strut off when I stumble.
17: I'm on the edge of losing it--the pain in my gut keeps burning.
18: I'm ready to tell my story of failure, I'm no longer smug in my sin.
19: My enemies are alive and in action, a lynch mob after my neck.
20: I give out good and get back evil from God--haters who can't stand a God--lover.
21: Don't dump me, GOD; my God, don't stand me up.
22: Hurry and help me; I want some wide-open space in my life!