Psalm 88 - The Darkness

Psalm 88:1-18 NIV

Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. 

May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. 

I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. 

I am counted among those who go down to the pit;

 I am like one without strength. 

I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave,

 whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. 

You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. 

Your wrath lies heavily on me;

 you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. 

You have taken from me my closest friends

 and have made me repulsive to them. 

I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief.

I call to you, Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to you. 

Do you show your wonders to the dead? 

Do their spirits rise up and praise you? 

Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? 

Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,

 or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion? 

But I cry to you for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you.

Why, Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me? 

From my youth I have suffered and been close to death;

 I have borne your terrors and am in despair. 

Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me.

All day long they surround me like a flood;

 they have completely engulfed me. 

You have taken from me friend and neighbor— 

darkness is my closest friend.

Psalm 88 is without a doubt the darkest and bleakest of all the psalms. The writer is in the depths of depression. His outlook is one of a long history of tragedy and suffering. Is this an exile praying from Babylon, old enough to remember better days in Palestine, but young enough to feel like his whole life is one long account of continual suffering? We cannot know.

What we do know is that there are those among us who could make this prayer their own. There are persons born into suffering who never leave it. Birth defects, mental illness from brain abnormalities, those born under dictatorships, those born into poverty, those who are the children of alcoholic and violent parents; the list can go on, but you get the idea. Some have it worse than most and sometimes there's no way out. Or so it seems.

The good news in this psalm is that the person trapped in this life of suffering lives within a community of faith. And so they are praying to the God who saves. They have heard of God's deeds. They have seen God's blessings upon their neighbors and friends. There is some hope, no matter how small, that the Lord will be moved with compassion.

The feeling of isolation in his pain is prevalent throughout Psalm 88. He feels cut off from God like he's a dead man. He feels estranged from his neighbors who are repulsed by his presence. He's is in the lowest and darkest pit, emotionally speaking. He feels trapped in his sad situation. What can he do?

He cries out to God. He asks God why the Lord does not help. He tries to convince God the pointlessness of sending one of his worshipers to an early grave. For in the psalmist's mind there is no life beyond this one. In his understanding there is no praise for God from those who lie in the grave.

If I were to paraphrase the message in Psalm 88, it's this.

God, I'm a mess. My life sucks and You know it. Why aren't you helping me? What good is it to You for me to suffer like this? I'm nearly dead. I might as well be. Nobody cares. They've all turned their backs on me. Even You have placed me in this awful darkness of my soul. I'm worn out with these painful feelings. But here I am praying to You, hoping You will hear me and have mercy. Every day I pray the same prayer, but nothing changes. God, are you even there? No answer. I know the darkness of my soul more than I know You, my God. You are a stranger to me.

I have to ask why this psalm is included in the collection of psalms and maintained as holy scripture. Though this psalm is dark and depressing I take joy in knowing God loves us no matter how bad we may feel. This psalm reveals that God's people suffer greatly at times and feel cut off from anything good. The fact that this psalm is in the Holy Bible is a pleasant reminder that God adores honest prayer. God hears the most wretched of us who turn to Him in hope. And as we know, "All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." (Acts 2:21)