The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday October 30, 2017 (NIV)

⁴ He has left my flesh open and raw, and has broken my bones.
⁵ He has shut me in a prison of misery and anguish.
⁶ He has forced me to live in the stagnant darkness of death.

⁷ He has bound me in chains; I am a prisoner with no hope of escape.
⁸ I cry aloud for help, but God refuses to listen;
⁹ I stagger as I walk; stone walls block me wherever I turn.

¹⁰ He waited for me like a bear; he pounced on me like a lion.
¹¹ He chased me off the road, tore me to pieces, and left me.
¹² He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

¹³ He shot his arrows deep into my body.
¹⁴ People laugh at me all day long; I am a joke to them all.
¹⁵ Bitter suffering is all he has given me for food and drink.

¹⁶ He rubbed my face in the ground and broke my teeth on rocks.
¹⁷ I have forgotten what health and peace and happiness are.
¹⁸ I do not have much longer to live; my hope in the Lord is gone.

¹⁹ The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison.
²⁰ I think of it constantly, and my spirit is depressed.
²¹ Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing:

²² The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue,
²³ Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.
²⁴ The Lord is all I have, and so in him I put my hope.

²⁵ The Lord is good to everyone who trusts in him,
²⁶ So it is best for us to wait in patience—to wait for him to save us—
²⁷ And it is best to learn this patience in our youth.

²⁸ When we suffer, we should sit alone in silent patience;
²⁹ We should bow in submission, for there may still be hope.
³⁰ Though beaten and insulted, we should accept it all.

³¹ The Lord is merciful and will not reject us forever.
³² He may bring us sorrow, but his love for us is sure and strong.
³³ He takes no pleasure in causing us grief or pain.

³⁴ The Lord knows when our spirits are crushed in prison;
³⁵ He knows when we are denied the rights he gave us;
³⁶ When justice is perverted in court, he knows.

³⁷ The will of the Lord alone is always carried out.^[a]
38 Good and evil alike take place at his command.
³⁹ Why should we ever complain when we are punished for our sin?^[b]

⁴⁰ Let us examine our ways and turn back to the Lord.
⁴¹ Let us open our hearts to God in heaven and pray,
⁴² “We have sinned and rebelled, and you, O Lord, have not forgiven us.

⁴³ “You pursued us and killed us; your mercy was hidden by your anger,
⁴⁴ By a cloud of fury too thick for our prayers to get through.
⁴⁵ You have made us the garbage dump of the world.

⁴⁶ “We are insulted and mocked by all our enemies.
⁴⁷ We have been through disaster and ruin; we live in danger and fear.
⁴⁸ My eyes flow with rivers of tears at the destruction of my people.

⁴⁹ “My tears will pour out in a ceaseless stream
⁵⁰ Until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees us.
⁵¹ My heart is grieved when I see what has happened to the women of the city.

⁵² “I was trapped like a bird by enemies who had no cause to hate me.
⁵³ They threw me alive into a pit and closed the opening with a stone.
⁵⁴ Water began to close over me, and I thought death was near.

⁵⁵ “From the bottom of the pit, O Lord, I cried out to you,
⁵⁶ And when I begged you to listen to my cry, you heard.
⁵⁷ You answered me and told me not to be afraid.

⁵⁸ “You came to my rescue, Lord, and saved my life.
⁵⁹ Judge in my favor; you know the wrongs done against me.
⁶⁰ You know how my enemies hate me and how they plot against me.

⁶¹ “You have heard them insult me, O Lord; you know all their plots.
⁶² All day long they talk about me and make their plans.
⁶³ From morning till night they make fun of me.

⁶⁴ “Punish them for what they have done, O Lord;
⁶⁵ Curse them and fill them with despair!
⁶⁶ Hunt them down and wipe them off the earth!”

Nor did God say about any angel,
“I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son.”

^8 (F)About the Son, however, God said:
“Your kingdom, O God, will last^[a] forever and ever!
You rule over your^[b] people with justice.
⁹ You love what is right and hate what is wrong.
That is why God, your God, has chosen you
and has given you the joy of an honor far greater
than he gave to your companions.”

^10 (G)He also said,
“You, Lord, in the beginning created the earth,
and with your own hands you made the heavens.
¹¹ They will disappear, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like clothes.
¹² You will fold them up like a coat,
and they will be changed like clothes.
But you are always the same,
and your life never ends.”

^13 (H)God never said to any of his angels:
“Sit here at my right side
until I put your enemies
as a footstool under your feet.”

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.