Ascribed to Heman the Ezrahite among the sons of Korah, this is the darkest lament in the Psalter, the cry of a man who has been afflicted and near death from his youth. Day and night he cries to the God of his salvation, feeling himself counted among the dead, laid in the lowest pit, with God's wrath lying hard upon him and His waves rolling over him. He asks whether the dead can praise God or His faithfulness be declared in the grave, and the psalm closes without relief: 'Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.' Yet even here faith holds on, for the sufferer directs every complaint to the LORD, showing that the deepest sorrow may still be prayed and that God receives the honest cry of those who wait for a dawn they cannot yet see.