Psalms 88 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Psalm 88

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil¹ of Heman the Ezrahite.

88:1   O LORD, God of my salvation,
    I cry out day and night before you.
2   Let my prayer come before you;
    incline your ear to my cry!
3   For my soul is full of troubles,
    and my life draws near to Sheol.
4   I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
    I am a man who has no strength,
5   like one set loose among the dead,
    like the slain that lie in the grave,
  like those whom you remember no more,
    for they are cut off from your hand.
6   You have put me in the depths of the pit,
    in the regions dark and deep.
7   Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
    and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8   You have caused my companions to shun me;
    you have made me a horror² to them.
  I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.
  Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
    I spread out my hands to you.
10   Do you work wonders for the dead?
    Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11   Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12   Are your wonders known in the darkness,
    or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13   But I, O LORD, cry to you;
    in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14   O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
    Why do you hide your face from me?
15   Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
    I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.³
16   Your wrath has swept over me;
    your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17   They surround me like a flood all day long;
    they close in on me together.
18   You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
    my companions have become darkness.⁴

Footnotes

[1] 88:1 Probably musical or liturgical terms
[2] 88:8 Or an abomination
[3] 88:15 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
[4] 88:18 Or darkness has become my only companion

Commentary

A prayer from the depths; bringing a knowledge that God can deliver, 1 Kings 4.31; 1 Chr 17.17; 25.5. It is said that this Psalm is the only one which contains no hope.

v1-2: We can call on God for help (Job 5.8), no one else can bring deliverance, and we are never beyond His reach.

v3-5: Full of troubles, near to death, without strength. We might ask for hope, but sometimes there seems to be no hope. This is the real experience of real people. The Bible invites us to be honest and to bring our circumstances and feelings to God.

v6-8: His sufferings are seen as from the hand of God; there are afflictions and loneliness, see Job 9.25; 19.11-14. If God has put him there, then God can bring him out again.

v9-12: Death was near; the place where God's blessings were absent. See Ps 30.8-10.

In our post-resurrection world, these questions are answered differently. Wonders, praise, love, faithfulness are all found in Jesus Christ. He has defeated death, the final enemy. In the difficult vers (1 Peter 3.19), Christ Himself "went and preached to the spirits in prison."

v13: Words repeated from v1,9; day and night he cried out to God. Prayer to God should be regular and frequent.

v14: "Why?" We have a desire to understand why God has acted as He has.

v15-18: "Your terrors...your wrath," (Job 6.4); God sent specific punishments on individuals; in such days of trouble it may be difficult to see God's overall purpose. Jonah used similar words, when he suffered the terror of being thrown into the sea, and swallowed by the whale.