16. He has also broken my teeth with gravel (stones); He has covered me with ashes.
17. And You have bereaved my soul and cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good and happiness are.
18. And I say, Perished is my strength and my expectation from the Lord.
19. [O Lord] remember [earnestly] my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall.
20. My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me.
21. But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation:
22. It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. [Mal. 3:6.]
23. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness. [Isa. 33:2.]
24. The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him. [Num. 18:20.]
25. The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God's word].
26. It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for the salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord.
27. It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke [of divine disciplinary dealings] in his youth.
28. Let him sit alone uncomplaining and keeping silent [in hope], because [God] has laid [the yoke] upon him [for his benefit]. [Rom. 8:28.]
29. Let him put his mouth in the dust [in abject recognition of his unworthiness]–there may yet be hope. [Mic. 7:17.]
30. Let him give his cheek to the One Who smites him [even through His human agents]; let him be filled [full] with [men's] reproach [in meekness].
31. For the Lord will not cast off forever! [Ps. 94:14.]
32. But though He causes grief, yet will He be moved to compassion according to the multitude of His loving-kindness and tender mercy.
33. For He does not willingly and from His heart afflict or grieve the children of men. [Ezek. 18:23, 32; Hos. 11:8; Heb. 12:5-10; II Pet. 3:9.]
34. To trample and crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth,