Psalm 88 a Lamenting Prayer
A Dark Night of the Soul That Never Seems to End
Psalm 88 is like a Dark Night of the Soul. It is a cold, blustery, snowy night that never ends. There is no morning after when the sun breaks through the darkness. It leaves the reader standing alone in the cold without a coat or the kind words of a friend to keep him warm.
Psalm 88 is a prayer reflecting the Dark Night of the Soul that seemingly never ends and where God appears not to hear or care and abandons the one praying.
Worst of all, God seems indifferent to the suffering of the psalmist. He is distant and far away but somehow, although remote, the reader can sense that God is present. Obviously, God preserved this prayer for a reason and placed it in the Bible, but why?
Sometimes There is no Explanation for Pain
Psalm 88 reminds us that sometimes there is no explanation for our Dark Night of the Soul and its accompanying anguish, suffering, and pain. We can’t figure out God. That we are helpless to control and manage our lives. And that even the painful and ugly things in life must be addressed or taken to God.
“Psalm 88 is an embarrassment to conventional faith.” (Brueggemann, 1984, p. 78)
But it is an embarrassment which we should keep. Exegetical research of Psalm 88 revealed a church that didn’t know what to do with it. Therefore, Psalm 88 stubbornly refuses to explain suffering or the God who allows it to happen. No matter how hard one tries to figure it out or make some good come out of it,
What’s this Psalm Doing in the Bible? Shouldn’t We Get It Out?
“What is a Psalm like that doing in the Bible and better yet, shouldn’t we get it out?” continues Brueggemann (1984).
It is unfortunate that most modern churches and Christians don’t meditate on the lamenting psalms, such as Psalm 88, or even teach the Dark Night of the Soul. Let alone read them aloud in church. Some reasons include fear of too much negativity or worse yet, deep denial of what this world is really like. This Psalm is raw, real and desperate and God can handle our pain, whether true or not.
To pray the unthinkable thoughts and words in Psalm 88 would be an act of unbelief in these churches. The lack of reflection on the lamenting psalms could cause.
Believers to put on their Sunday clothes, happy faces, and pretend that they don’t have any struggles in this evil secular world.
Psalm 88 Is A Prayer Offered in Extreme Duress
Prayer Under Extreme Duress and Pain
Psalm 88 is an individual lament, which was offered up to God in a time of extreme duress. There are a variety of reasons for the lament psalms. One, when the psalmist was upset with himself. Two, when he felt betrayed by others. Three, when he was struggling with his relationship with God. A lament Psalm is used in times of disorientation.
“The supposedly God-forsaken author of Psalm 88 seems to have been one of the pioneers of the singing guilds set up by David, to which we owe the Korahite psalms, one of the richest veins of the Psalter” (Kidner).
Therefore, even though written in loneliness and abandonment, it was read or sung in the community of faith.
Deep Pain in the Soul
The author of Psalm 88 is aware of the deep pain of his soul. This awareness leads him to articulate to God the depths of his suffering in an unedited, bold, angry way. The psalmist does not speak in a quiet whisper to God – – he shouts, yells, and screams for divine help!
“It is not dignified prayer, but protracted wailing” (Tate).
He does not pretend his pain doesn’t bother him; he audaciously confronts God with his anger. The mere fact that he prays in the midst of his rage and suffering points to a firm belief in and relationship with God. What is surprising is that the psalmist chooses to participate in a conversation with God at all.
Oh Lord, God of My Salvation
Verse 1 addresses God as,
“Oh Lord, the God of my salvation.”
This statement is the only light in this darkness. It expresses the psalmist’s belief that God could be his Savior. It conveys a continuing faith in his God as the only source from which his salvation can come.
“The depth of despair is most acutely felt by a believer who has experienced God’s faithfulness and tasted His goodness in the past” (Barker & Kohlenberger).
Furthermore, the psalmist has obviously experienced the closeness of communion with God. No wonder he can pour out the bitter anguish of his soul before Him. He comes to God without pretense and he doesn’t hide his feelings towards God.
“The failure of God to respond does not lead to atheism or doubt in God or rejection of God. It leads to a more intense address. It resembles the faith of Israel which contains the notion that Yahweh is here and must be addressed” says Brueggemann.
The God Who Hears
Lamentations in Psalm 88
Verses 1 and 2 proclaim the psalmist’s steadfast faith in God even in the midst of suffering. The psalmist believes that God is there and that He is listening to his prayer. There is no playing up to God, there is not even manipulation, there is only complete honesty.
The psalmist likens his suffering to dying in verses 3-6. The psalmist is experiencing dying in life. The pit that verse 4 speaks of is beyond the range of communion with God; it is the absence and silence of God (Bruggemann, 1984).
“Israel believed that the dead were in a permanent place of uncleanness, and as such, they were excluded from the worship of Yahweh, and cut off from the covenant institutions and its blessings” (Marshal, Morgan & Scott).
Even his sense of abandonment takes place before God.
God Appears to Be the Enemy
The psalmist moves on in verses 7-12 to blame God for all of his sufferings. God is the enemy. The psalmist’s suffering is the Lord’s doing. The afflictions seem to have been caused by God’s wrath. Even his community has abandoned him, and he blames God for removing them. In the church today it is often considered unchristian to be angry or depressed. So, how does a believer pray when he doubts God or is angry with Him?
“Believers often struggle with this tension between directing human words of hate and rage towards God and living what they think is a holy life. And yet, here rage is in Scripture, expressed as words for us to pray” (Parker).
The psalmist could have pretended it didn’t bother him. He could have found a new way of managing his own pain. He could have chosen never to talk to God again. But he chose to tell God how he felt. Psalm 88 gives us permission to tell God how we really feel. In His kindness, God invites us to tell Him how we feel. And what we think even if it includes a gut-level honesty and rage. It puts our problems in His hands to solve. If we did not have the shape, form, and words of Psalm 88, integrity would be lost. For this psalm has profound honesty and we never want to lose honesty with God (Parker).
We All Long for Healing
The author of longs for deliverance in verses 10-12. The intensity of his terror heats up when he sends up several rhetorical questions to God.
How can God perform wonders for the dead?
Where there is death there is no praise of God.
It is among the living that miracles are performed.
His promises are given only to the living.
The psalmist is near death and God is his only chance for survival. It is interesting to note that verses 10-12 reveal how God would usually respond to the psalmist prayers:
He would perform wonders,
His children would praise Him,
His loving-kindness would be declared, and
He would cleanse the psalmist of unrighteousness.
But not for this psalmist, there is only silence and darkness. There is no hope; there is only more despair.
How Long oh Lord Must I Wait?
When God Doesn’t Answer?
In verses 15-18 the psalmist is engulfed by adversity. The Psalm does not end nice and neat with an answer to his prayer. There is no warm fuzzy feeling when this psalm ends. He continues to cry out to God in prayer. Then abruptly the psalm ends with the word “darkness.” He completes his prayer totally unrewarded and continues in the Dark Night of the Soul.
Brueggemann comments that: “Nothing is changed, and nothing is resolved. And worst of all is the shunning by his community. He has only two options: either to wait in silence or speak it again. What one may do is to rush to an easier psalm, or to give up on Yahweh.”
The Example of Job
The book of Job is like Psalm 88, truly, a Dark Night of the Soul. God was more concerned with developing Job’s character and glorifying Himself than with giving Job a life of ease and comfort. It was only after Job experienced the “dark night of the soul” and was firmly put in his place by the Lord that God blessed him again. Like Job, it is important never to give up, to address God honestly in the midst of terrible suffering, and to let our sorrow and deep longings drive us towards the Lord and not away from Him.
Psalm 88 reminds us to keep the conversation with God going even when circumstances look the bleakest and especially when we find ourselves in the Dark Night of the Soul.
It gives us permission to pray the full range of our feelings whether they are positive or negative.
God is able to handle our most deeply felt rage as well as our happy, joyful thoughts.
Deep intimacy is built when we pray honestly before God expressing the passion of our souls.
Sometimes, the core testimony of our faith is developed in the darkest places.
Suffering is Inevitable because Christians are Broken
Even believers struggle with their faith and with the relationship they have with their Lord. Many times we want to understand our pain so that we can control and manage it. In a sense so that we can control and manage God. All of our prayer formulas and methods are only tools for greater self-sufficiency and demandingness. The Bible does not paint our world rosy and bright; it deals honestly with the rotten, awful things of life.
Jesus said that we would have trials and tribulations in this world. The fact is that when experiencing sorrow and grief this present world does not satisfy the longings of our soul. We are not promised heaven here on this earth, we are promised heaven after this world passes away.
Brueggemann states, “We may conclude that in stressful situations what we most long and yearn for is to be known and heard.”
The Gospel of Jesus
Because of the Psalm’s incompleteness, it leaves us looking for the Gospel to complete it. Should we perhaps read the Psalm with Christ in mind? Jesus Himself was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Psalm 88 may be prophetic because it leads us to Jesus’ cry of suffering. He willingly chose to take on the sins of the world and was separated from the Father on the cross.
“Oh God, Oh God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34)
We would do well to withhold judgment upon this particular psalmist until we have faced the suffering that the Lord faced on this earth. The happy endings with which most lamenting Psalms conclude is not a right we are entitled to, nor can we demand it as God’s children.
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