Psalms · psalm 88 of 150
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Psalm 88 is the prayer of Heman the Ezrahite, a man near death, abandoned by his friends and overwhelmed by what he feels as God's wrath. Unlike almost all laments, it does not end with a note of trust: its last word is that darkness is his companion. Even so, the psalm begins by calling God the God of his salvation and cries out to him day and night.
The title calls it a song and psalm of the sons of Korah, for the choirmaster, according to Mahalath Leannoth, a Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. Heman appears in 1 Kings 4:31 as a wise man. It is the darkest psalm in the Psalter, because it includes no praise or promise of joy, and reading it is uncomfortable. Yet its inclusion in the Bible teaches that this kind of prayer also has a place before God.
The psalm begins with an invocation that is the only ray of light: O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry. From there on, everything is shadow. Verses 3 to 5 describe his state: his soul is full of troubles and his life draws near to Sheol. He is counted among those who go down to the pit, like a man who has no strength, set loose among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom God remembers no more, and who are cut off from his hand.
Verses 6 to 9 attribute his pain to God. You have put him in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. God's wrath lies heavy on him, and he is overwhelmed with all his waves. God has caused his companions to shun him and made him a horror to them; he is shut in so that he cannot escape. His eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day he calls upon God and spreads out his hands.
Verses 10 to 12 raise questions: do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness?
Verses 13 to 18 return to prayer. But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The psalmist calls God the God of my salvation and cries out day and night. Even at the darkest point, the only thing that continues is his prayer directed to God.
He feels that God has put him in the depths of the pit and that his wrath lies heavy on him. The psalmist does not hide God's part in his pain and says it to him directly.
In spite of everything, he cries to God and in the morning his prayer comes before him. Faith here is not optimism but insisting on prayer even when there is no answer.
The psalm ends with his friends and companions removed and his acquaintances turned to darkness. There is no happy ending, and that honesty is part of what the Bible offers to those who suffer.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The God of my salvation. — Psalm 88:1
Answer: Sheol, among those who go down to the pit. — Psalm 88:3-4
Answer: He has caused them to shun him and made him a horror to them. — Psalm 88:8
Answer: Whether they will rise to praise God and whether his steadfast love is declared in the grave. — Psalm 88:10-11
Answer: He cries to God, and his prayer comes before him. — Psalm 88:13
Answer: With his friends and companions removed and his acquaintances turned to darkness. — Psalm 88:18
Psalm 88 gives permission to those going through depression, a long illness or deep grief to pray without pretending a hope they do not feel. Its mere presence in the Bible says that God accepts that prayer. In a small group a leader can read it respectfully and remember that not every story is resolved soon.
It also teaches us how to accompany. The psalmist's friends withdrew, and that loneliness was part of his suffering. Visiting, listening and being present, without rushing to give answers, is a form of love. And whoever is in the dark can notice that the psalmist keeps speaking to God: that is already an act of faith.
Psalm 88 ends in darkness, with no visible answer. Psalm 89, by Ethan the Ezrahite, is the last of Book III: it contrasts God's great promises to David with the painful reality of a humbled kingdom.
Because the Bible does not ask believers to pretend. Psalm 88 shows that one can bring God the darkest question without ceasing to call him the God of my salvation. For Christians, that darkness finds an echo in Jesus, who on the cross cried out with words of Psalm 22, according to Matthew 27:46, and entrusted himself to the Father, according to Luke 23:46.
He appears in 1 Kings 4:31 with Ethan, Calcol and Darda as a man famous for his wisdom, though lesser than Solomon. The title presents him as the author of this Maskil. Nothing more is known of him, and the psalm does not say what happened to him.