Ps. 88 - LORD, Are You There?

Introduction

Despair! That was the word the came to mind when I read this psalm. There are expressions of hope. There is no change of perspective. There is no praise. There is only suffering. This is raw emotion coming from great pain. There is no end in sight. There is only the sense of abandonment. This leads to the key question: LORD, are you there?

Background

We don’t know the time or circumstance of writing. Some commentators believe, based on v. 15, the issue is some form of physical illness, but we can’t see sure. All we know is the psalmist is pressed down in every way. There is no happy ending. It is the dark night of the soul. We can break this psalm up into three parts:

So great a suffering (vs. 1 - 7)

All alone in the suffering (vs. 8 - 12)

Abandoned by God to the suffering (vs. 13 - 18)

Exposition

Verses 1 - 2: Like many laments the psalmist begins by crying out to God. He knows the LORD alone is the God who saves. If there is any hope for him, it us found in Yahweh. He has cried and cried to the LORD day and night without response. He is pleading for the LORD to hear and answer. He desperately needs to LORD to pay attention. He knows that if the LORD would act, his lot would improve.

Verses 3 - 7: All the psalmist knows is suffering. His life is a living hell devoid of any seeming good. His trails has sapped his strength. Through physically alive, he is as good as dead. He is like the forgotten soldier in the unmarked grave.[1] He knows nothing of the goodness of God. The LORD’s hand of favor is gone from him. His life is one where the wrath of God is felt, not the goodness. Yahweh is the source of his affliction, causing him to suffer without justification.[2]

Verses 8 - 12: Adding to the suffering of the psalmist is his solitude. All his friends are gone. Again the psalmist sees the LORD as responsible.[3] They don’t want to be around him. He has no one he can turn too. He can’t see straight. Yet in the midst he understands that God is still sovereign and all powerful so he calls Him. He lifts his hands and cries out to the LORD. Yet there is nothing. How can he speak of the goodness of the God of Israel from the grave? He can’t praise the LORD from Sheol. Shall miracles be worked for dead people.

Verses 13 - 18: The psalmist keeps crying out to the LORD. Morning and night he prays to the alone one who can help. He is deeply disturbed but knows God is still able. Yet God doesn’t answer. The LORD hasn’t come to the aid of his servant. He is overcome by the hand of the LORD. He is brought to ruin by the wrath of God. All around him is suffering and anguish. There is no one in his life who cares. The only thing he knows in the dark.

Practical Application

The psalm is an antidote to the cheap grace, easy living, false promises of the prosperity gospel and other watered down systems. The Christian life is not easy. It is not a walk in the park. Walking in victory is promised no where in the New Testament and the Old Testament made clear that, even in blessed Israel, there would be poverty, sickness, injustice, and death. This psalm teaches us that while God is always there, He sometimes is silent. Sometimes evil is going to go on for a while. Yet, as with many lament psalms, this psalm encourages us that in our darkest moments we can, should, and must not shy away from crying out to our GOD. We can be brutally honest with our heavenly Father. We can rest in the care of our LORD.

Bibliography

1. VanGemeren, W. A. (2008). Psalms. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms (Revised Edition) (Vol. 5, p. 659). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

2. ibid. Pg 660

3. Tanner, B. (2014). Book Three of the Psalter: Psalms 73–89. In E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, & R. L. Hubbard Jr. (Eds.), The Book of Psalms (p. 671). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.