Sermon Tone Analysis
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Psalm 88
! Introduction
I enjoy blues music.
I don't know why I like it because it is actually quite sad music.
When the African people came to America, they were brought over as slaves and they suffered greatly.
They sang songs which expressed their suffering and they used the term "blues" to describe it.
The term "blues" likely comes from a ceremony that West African cultures practiced.
During times of death and mourning all of a person's garments would have been dyed blue.
As far as I have been able to understand, that is the roots of blues music and the term "blues."
As I said, it is very sad music.
One song with the title, "Learnin' the Blues" includes the following words:
"When you feel your heart break - you're learnin' the blues
When you're at home alone, the blues will taunt you constantly
When you're out in a crowd, those blues will haunt your memory
The nights when you don't sleep - that whole night you're cryin.'"
It isn't only the words that are sad, but also the very music itself.
I've asked Jeremy to play a portion of a blues song, just to show how sad even the music is.
Psalm 88 is identified as a song, but its content is profoundly sad.
Perhaps we could say that it is the original blues song.
Strangely enough, it is one of my favorite Psalms.
We sometimes use the phrase, "I'm feeling kind of blue" to describe times when we are sad.
Psalm 88, however, is much deeper than occasional sadness.
I believe that it is a description of depression.
Last Sunday we spoke about God as present in troubles and in looking at Psalm 91, we were encouraged by the hope that is always ours.
Psalm 88 is much different and invites us to ask "Where is God?" at a time when things are very dark.
Where is God when there seems to be no hope?
Where is God when we are going through depression?
Where is God when He seems totally absent?
This is the theme of Psalm 88 and it speaks to a reality which some people find only too near to them.
!
I. Singing the Blues!
I would like to invite you into a place that most of us prefer not to go.
Yet Psalm 88 is in the Bible and we need to think about it.
So I invite you to take careful note of the expressions of suffering and sadness found in this Psalm.
!! A. Anguish Expressed
People have suggested various settings for this Psalm.
Some suggest that it is written by someone who was suffering from a life threatening illness, others that it was written by someone who had been betrayed by close friends.
The expressions of suffering in this Psalm are quite varied.
There are descriptions in this Psalm of someone who is experiencing physical anguish.
In verse 3, 4 he says, "my life draws near to Sheol.
I am counted among those who go down to the Pit…" These words speak of someone whose life is in danger and who feels that he is near to death.
Verse 15 has a similar description when it says, "Wretched and close to death from my youth up…" One of the most difficult experiences most people face is physical illness.
When our body does not work well, we feel near to death.
It can be a bad cold, a flu or a serious and debilitating illness which causes us to be in this situation and it is a difficult place to be.
The writer also says, in verse 3, "my soul is full of trouble."
In verse 7 we read, "you have overwhelmed me with all your waves."
In verse 8 he says, "I am confined and cannot escape."
In these and other statements, we sense that the writer feels as if he is drowning.
Everywhere he looks there is trouble.
He cannot see any way out.
The trouble in these verses seems to be emotional trouble.
Loneliness is also a part of this Psalm.
In verse 8 we read, "You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them."
In verse 18 he says, "You have taken my companions and loved ones from me."
We also read of his spiritual anguish.
He feels that God is against him.
In verse 6 he writes, "You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
In verse 14 he blames God.
"Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me?" Along with blaming God, much of the Psalm is also a struggle with the feeling that God doesn’t hear or answer prayer.
He feels as if God has forgotten him or worse, deliberately rejected him.
We read this in verse 14, "Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me?" When he feels that he is separated from God, he also feels as if he is experiencing the wrath of God.
He expresses this in verse 7, "Your wrath lies heavily upon me."
!! B. Depression
Although we see all of these expressions of anguish, I believe that when all of them are taken together it is a description of depression.
As I have spoken with people suffering from depression, they tell me that this Psalm has connected with them.
Charles Spurgeon who was a great preacher and teacher and has written many commentaries on the Bible suffered from bouts of depression.
As I read his comments on this Psalm, it seems to me that he understood this Psalm to be descriptive of depression.
The Canadian Mental Health Association website describes depression saying, "Someone experiencing depression is grappling with feelings of severe despair over an extended period of time."
That certainly seems to be what is expressed in this Psalm.
The Helpguide.org
website identifies a number of signs and symptoms of depression.
Clearly I am not a psychologist, but it seems to me that many are expressed in this Psalm.
1. Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.
The feeling that nothing will ever get better and there's nothing you can do to improve your situation.
Psalm 88:3a, "For my soul is full of troubles…" = hopelessness
Psalm 88:4b, "I am like those who have no help…" = helplessness
Psalm 88:8b, "…I am shut in so that I cannot escape…" = nothing will ever get better.
2. Loss of interest in daily activities and the loss of ability to feel joy and pleasure.
Psalm 88:9a, "…my eye grows dim through sorrow…"
3. Sleep changes including waking in the early hours of the morning seem to be expressed in the fact that in verses 1, 9 and 13, the writer speaks about being awake at night, in the day and in the morning.
4. Feeling agitated, restless, or even violent.
Your tolerance level is low, your temper short, and everything and everyone gets on your nerves.
Psalm 88:7b, "…you overwhelm me with all your waves."
= feeling agitated.
Psalm 88:8b, "…I am shut in so that I cannot escape…" = restlessness.
5. Loss of energy so that even small tasks are exhausting or take longer to complete.
Psalm 88:16 & 17. "Your wrath has swept over me; your dread assaults destroy me.
They surround me like a flood all day long; from all sides they close in on me."
6.
Strong feelings of worthlessness or guilt.
You harshly criticize yourself for perceived faults and mistakes.
These feelings are frequently expressed by the Psalmist especially as feelings that God has abandoned him.
Psalm 88:14 - "O LORD, why do you cast me off?
Why do you hide your face from me?"
Psalm 88:15 - "Wretched and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am desperate."
7. Thoughts of death or suicide.
Psalm 88:3b - "…my life draws near to Sheol."
Psalm 88:5 - "like those forsaken 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."
Psalm 88:15 - "Wretched and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am desperate."
Spurgeon comments, “Death would be welcomed as a relief by those whose depressed spirits make their existence a living death.”
8.
The feeling that there is no “light at the end of the tunnel.”
Psalm 88:18 – (NIV), "the darkness is my closest friend."
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