A Psalm for the Buried - Psalm 88

Is Psalm 88 the saddest psalm? It seems to be sung near the gates of Hades. 

There is no change for the better at the end, no note of victory to be sung.

This ends with no friends but darkness.

Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have cried by day and in the night before thee. Let my prayer come before thee; incline thine ear unto my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to Sheol.

Soul-troubles and a death-like feeling happens to us. This is a crying out by day and in the night to the Lord. There is a victory in hopeless darkness just by bringing it all before your God and staying before Him with it. 

The three friends of Daniel knew that God could deliver them from the fire but even if He didn't they would still be faithful to Him (3:18).

All of this may seem like a complaint but do you complaint about God? or do you complain to God?

I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength: Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand.

Counted as dead. Without strength. Not remembered. Cut off from God's work and blessing.

 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps. Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.  

It is the Lord who has placed you here in the deep and dark pit. Do you blame any others? Are you bothered at others? Change the complaint, change the view from anyone else but the God of your salvation who has afflicted you with His waves. His fury is upon you. 

Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

Friends have been lost. They all think the worst of you. Your soul is shut up, you cannot be yourself because of what they think, what they've said. You are an abomination to them. Who did this? Are you upset at the friends? The Lord has put them far from you. Are you offended?

Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

So many tears, but every day you call upon the Lord. You stretch out your hands to Him in prayer.

Wilt thou do wonders to the dead? shall the shades arise and praise thee? Selah.

The point is that the dead cannot praise, but is this a type of praise what's happening in this psalm?

Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in Destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But as for me, Jehovah, I cry unto thee, and in the morning my prayer cometh before thee.

If you can receive it, the answer from the Lord, somehow, is: yes
His loving-kindness is declared even in your complaint. You are destroyed and in the dark and forgotten but His faithfulness, wonders and righteousness are what you are considering. He has one right now, who is lost and dark and seemingly hopeless but who has chosen to cry out to the Lord. He has one who will still rise up in the morning and pray to Him, even if it is from the place of the dead.

Why, O Jehovah, castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

Ask this question, but expect no answer. Seek His face, but in this season of the grave it is hidden.

I am afflicted and expiring from my youth up; I suffer thy terrors, [and] I am distracted.

Thy fierce anger hath gone over me; thy terrors have brought me to nought: They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together.

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It is okay to take note of what has happened to you. It is okay to acknowledge it all before the Lord. Though it all be from Him, and though it come out like a complaint, the best thing to do is to cry out to Him with all of the details.

Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.

Darkness is the new friend as all other friends are lost. 

I can't explain it.

I can't teach it. 

But if you are in the darkness of being buried by the Lord, then your heart may sing this psalm. If you have no answer and no resurrection upon you, then you are strangely comforted in this hopeless cry. 

While your friends are far away, while you've lost the fellowship so often enjoyed, your new friend is the darkness of the fellowship of His sufferings. This fellowship is especially found in the grave. 

 

Psalm 88

A Song, a Psalm for the sons of Korah. 

To the chief Musician. 

Upon Mahalath Leannoth. 

An instruction. 

Of Heman the Ezrahite.

1 Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have cried by day [and] in the night before thee.

2 Let my prayer come before thee; incline thine ear unto my cry.

3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to Sheol.

4 I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength:

5 Prostrate among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave; whom thou rememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand.

6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.

7 Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.

8 Thou hast put my familiar friends far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

9 Mine eye consumeth by reason of affliction. Upon thee, Jehovah, have I called every day; I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

10 Wilt thou do wonders to the dead? shall the shades arise and praise thee? Selah.

11 Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave? thy faithfulness in Destruction?

12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

13 But as for me, Jehovah, I cry unto thee, and in the morning my prayer cometh before thee.

14 Why, O Jehovah, castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?

15 I am afflicted and expiring from my youth up; I suffer thy terrors, [and] I am distracted.

16 Thy fierce anger hath gone over me; thy terrors have brought me to nought:

17 They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together.

18 Lover and associate hast thou put far from me: my familiar friends are darkness.