Psalm 88 A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician. Set to “Mahalath Leannoth.” a Contemplation of Heman the Ezrahite.

 ¹O Lord, God of my salvation,

I have cried out day and night before You.

²Let my prayer come before You;

Incline Your ear to my cry.

³For my soul is full of troubles,

And my life draws near to the grave.

⁴I am counted with those who go down to the pit;

I am like a man who has no strength,

⁵Adrift among the dead,

Like the slain who lie in the grave,

Whom You remember no more,

And who are cut off from Your hand.

⁶You have laid me in the lowest pit,

In darkness, in the depths.

⁷Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah

⁸You have put away my acquaintances far from me;

You have made me an abomination to them;

I am shut up, and I cannot get out;

⁹My eye wastes away because of affliction.

Lord, I have called daily upon You;

I have stretched out my hands to You.

¹⁰Will You work wonders for the dead?

Shall the dead arise and praise You? Selah

¹¹Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave?

Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?

¹²Shall Your wonders be known in the dark?

And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³But to You I have cried out, O Lord,

And in the morning my prayer comes before You.

¹⁴Lord, why do You cast off my soul?

Why do You hide Your face from me?

¹⁵I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth;

I suffer Your terrors;

I am distraught.

¹⁶Your fierce wrath has gone over me;

Your terrors have cut me off.

¹⁷They came around me all day long like water;

They engulfed me altogether.

¹⁸Loved one and friend

You have put far from me,

And my acquaintances into darkness.

Preamble: If Job had written a Psalm during his troubles this would be it. For there are many parallels between his own sufferings and what is declared here, and maybe yours as well. Now Heman was one of the chief singers in David's choir, so what do you do when a worship leader falls into a deep state of despair?

Commentary

Vs. 1-2 “O Lord, God of my salvation,

I have cried out day and night before You.”

²Let my prayer come before You;

Incline Your ear to my cry.

The Psalm opens with a strong declaration of faith in the Lord, who is the God of my salvation, and hopefully your as well. It however quickly moves into their distress. For day and night they have cried out before the Lord without their prayer being seemingly heard or answered. Therefore, in deep supplication they ask that their prayer come before our God, and He incline His ear to them. Now some may ask why are there seasons in our lives when our prayers seemingly go unheard or unanswered? To which I have no simple answer, but which I will respond by saying that during Job’s own sufferings God never abandoned him, and through his sufferings God not only exposed and rebuked some deeply held but wrong beliefs by Jobs friends, (which were a common theology back then, and sadly even now on why people suffer), but ultimately He brought about Job’s own change by these things by exposing his own sinfulness to him, (something that righteous people often have a hard time seeing in themselves), and through Jobs sufferings God has brought about great comfort and understanding to innumerable generations of His own children whom He also patiently suffers with. But enough of that back to the Psalm. 

Vs. 3-5 ³For my soul is full of troubles,

And my life draws near to the grave.

⁴I am counted with those who go down to the pit;

I am like a man who has no strength,

⁵Adrift among the dead,

Like the slain who lie in the grave,

Whom You remember no more,

And who are cut off from Your hand.

Their appeal to God continues as they declare to Him that very depths of their despair, saying that their soul is full of troubles, and that their very life has now drawn near to the grave (Vs. 3). These then are not exaggerations, but declarations of someone hanging on for dear life! For by their own words people have already written them off, considered them as good as dead, while they themselves find no mortal strength to carry on (vs.4). They have even begun to see themselves in that light, like one adrift among the dead, cast away with the slain in the grave; like those whom God remembers no more, who are cut off from His hand (vs. 5). It is all very depressing language, but it is what they are feeling in their sorrowful plight, and so they are expressing their feelings truthfully to God, for this is what they need to do to keep themselves afloat.

Vs. 6-9 ⁶You have laid me in the lowest pit,

In darkness, in the depths.

⁷Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah

⁸You have put away my acquaintances far from me;

You have made me an abomination to them;

I am shut up, and I cannot get out;

⁹My eye wastes away because of affliction.

Lord, I have called daily upon You;

I have stretched out my hands to You.

The Psalmist now sees God as having laid all of this upon them. For it is hard to see God favoring one when one is faced with such a dark and ominous plight with no answers for it. And so here we see the Psalmist expressing that, just like how Job expressed his own sense of being abandoned by God. And yet as we know with Job God did not abandon him. Nonetheless in their despair they only see God as having laid them in the lowest pit, in a place of darkness, far into the depths (vs. 6). For the Psalmist feels that they are now under God’s wrath, that waves of His Judgment and wrath have taken hold of them (vs. 7). As evidence of this they now declare to God that He has also put all their acquaintances far from them, that He has made him an abomination to them (consider Job 19:13-20). They feel so helpless in their circumstances, they even feel that they have been shut up with no way out (vs. 8). Even their eye wastes away because of their affliction, and yet he has daily called upon the Lord, he has stretched out his hands to Him in prayer, he has not abandoned God. 

Vs. 10-13 ¹⁰Will You work wonders for the dead?

Shall the dead arise and praise You? Selah

¹¹Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave?

Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?

¹²Shall Your wonders be known in the dark?

And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³But to You I have cried out, O Lord,

And in the morning my prayer comes before You.

The Psalmist now turns from declaring his own despair and plight to now questions, questions from a humbled heart meant to move the Lord to his relief and defense. 

Verse ten “Will You work wonders for the dead?

Shall the dead arise and praise You? Selah”

The answer is no. Death in O.T. times meant the end of all connection with the living, at least as far as having and enjoying their fellowship, for in Sheol there is no provisions for fellowship with God or man. However, in the N.T. because of Christ’s death on the Cross and Resurrection from the dead our mortal death is not our end, just our beginning with Him and all His saints, all of our believing loved ones who went before us, together again in heaven forever!

Their appeal continues, saying,

“Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave?

Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?”

Again, the answer is no. Sheol in the O.T. is the place of silence and darkness, it is the grave, there is no joy or singing there. Therefore, their appeal to the Lord to restore them is based upon their desire to continue to declare the Lord’s lovingkindness and faithfulness even though they have been severely tested by Him. For they have not abandoned their faith in Lord during all of this. For they continue to cry out to the Lord and make their prayers to Him every morning (vs. 13).

 Vs. 14-16 ¹⁴Lord, why do You cast off my soul?

Why do You hide Your face from me?

¹⁵I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth;

I suffer Your terrors;

I am distraught.

¹⁶Your fierce wrath has gone over me;

Your terrors have cut me off.

The questions asked in verse fourteen cannot be answered by me, yet they are the honest expressions of someone who is being greatly afflicted, someone who believes in the Lord, and yet whose life from their youth has seemingly been a life of suffering. And yet once again they find themselves suffering terrors, which they rightly or wrongly attribute to the Lord. For as we know with Job who went through the same, the Lord was not the author of his troubles, Satan was. And so sadly in their distraught state they conclude this Psalm by saying that God’s fierce wrath has gone over them and that His terrors have cut them off. It seems then that that they believe all is lost, and yet they could only see what God has planned for the rest of their life what would have written, would it be the same dark gloomy end? I know in my own life that there have been seasons, many years in it when it seemed to me (and others as well) that all was lost, and yet here I live today decades later, held up and held onto by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Yes, today as I enter my senior years, my life is more fuller and more abundant than it has ever been at any point previously in it. Amazing! All I can say is thankyou Lord for all that you have done and continue to do, even when I do not immediately see it or perceive it, for You have kept me and sustained me through it all! For You Lord are always working all things together for my (our) good, amen!

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.