Chapter Summary
Core Passages from Psalms 88
Psalm 88:3For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
This verse sets the stage for the entire psalm, establishing the psalmist's overwhelming sense of being consumed by trouble and on the verge of death.Psalm 88:7Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
Here, the psalmist directly attributes his suffering to God, feeling crushed under the weight of divine wrath, a central and challenging theme of the prayer.Psalm 88:18You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
This is the devastating final line of the psalm, summarizing the complete isolation of the sufferer, whose only remaining companion is darkness itself.
Historical & Cultural Context
An Unfiltered Cry of Pain
Psalm 88 is a personal lament, a type of prayer common in the Psalms where an individual cries out to God in distress. However, it stands out for its unrelenting bleakness. The psalmist, Heman, is suffering from a lifelong affliction that has brought him to the brink of death, isolated him from his community, and made him feel as though God is his enemy. The entire psalm is a single, sustained cry from this place of deep darkness.
A Song Without a Happy Ending
The narrative flow of the psalm is a descent, not an ascent. It doesn't move from pain to praise but spirals deeper into despair. Heman lays out his case before God, detailing his physical weakness, his social rejection, and his spiritual abandonment. The psalm ends without any glimmer of hope, a stark reminder that sometimes faith means holding on in the dark without any promise of a sunrise.
A Descent into Darkness
Psalm 88 is not a story with a setting, but a raw emotional outpouring from a soul in agony. The psalmist, Heman, brings his complaint directly to God, whom he still addresses as the 'God of my salvation' even as he details the crushing weight of his suffering. The following sections trace his argument as he describes his condition, questions God's purpose, and concludes in near-total despair.
A Soul Full of Troubles (Psalm 88:1-9a)
1 O Lord, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!
3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose 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.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
8 You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Commentary:
The psalmist cries out to God, describing his overwhelming suffering, proximity to death, and intense isolation.
Questions from the Grave (Psalm 88:9b-12)
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you?
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Commentary:
He questions if God's goodness can reach the dead, urging God to act before it's too late for praise.
Why Do You Hide Your Face? (Psalm 88:13-18)
13 But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
Commentary:
The psalmist's final plea accuses God of hiding from him and ends with a statement of complete abandonment and darkness.
The Weight of Suffering and Divine Silence
The Honesty of Unresolved Lament
Psalm 88 gives powerful permission to be brutally honest with God. It demonstrates that faith is not about pretending everything is fine. It can and does include raw, unanswered questions, deep anger, and feelings of utter abandonment.
The Pain of Divine Hiddenness
A central agony for the psalmist is the feeling that God is silent and actively hiding His face (v. 14). This theme explores the deep spiritual crisis of experiencing God's absence in the midst of desperate need, a feeling that God is the source of the pain rather than the solution.
Suffering and Complete Isolation
The psalmist's pain is not only internal. It is deeply social. He feels God has caused his friends and loved ones to shun him (v. 8, 18), compounding his misery. The psalm shows how deep suffering can lead to an intense and terrifying loneliness.
Finding God in the Darkness
Psalm 88 shows that no emotion is off-limits in prayer. It validates your feelings of anger, despair, and abandonment, teaching you that you can bring your whole, unfiltered self to God. The act of crying out, as seen in verse 13, is itself an act of faith, even when hope feels lost.
Its inclusion tells you that faith is not always about victory and praise. The Bible makes space for the reality of unresolved suffering and spiritual darkness. It assures you that even in those moments, you are not outside the story of faith. Your experience is seen, heard, and recorded in God's word.
The psalmist's friends abandoned him, and his only companion became darkness (v. 18). This psalm challenges you to do the opposite: to be present with those who suffer without offering easy answers. Sometimes, the most powerful ministry is to sit with someone in their darkness, refusing to let them be alone.
Faithful Cries from Utter Darkness
Psalm 88 stands as a stark monument to the reality of deep, unresolved suffering in the life of faith. It declares that God is big enough to handle our most desperate and seemingly faithless cries. The message is not one of hope found, but of honesty given: even when God feels like the source of our pain, the only direction to turn is still toward Him.
What This Means for Us Today
Psalm 88 is an invitation into the fellowship of suffering. It assures us that when we feel completely alone in our pain, we are not. Our cries join a chorus of saints throughout history who have wrestled with God in the dark. This psalm invites us to bring our deepest wounds to God, trusting that He hears even when He is silent.
- Is there a pain or sorrow you have been hesitant to bring to God in prayer? What would it look like to pray with the honesty of Psalm 88?
- Who in your life might be feeling the isolation described in this psalm, and how can you be a non-anxious presence for them?
- Where do you need to accept that it is acceptable to struggle, and rest in the mystery of God's presence in suffering?
Further Reading
Immediate Context
This preceding psalm is a joyful song celebrating Zion as the glorious city of God, creating a stark and jarring contrast with the deep personal despair of Psalm 88.
The following psalm is another lament that, while beginning with praise for God's covenant, ends by questioning God's faithfulness, echoing the themes of divine abandonment.
Connections Across Scripture
Job's lament after losing everything mirrors the despair of Psalm 88, as he curses the day of his birth and longs for the forgetfulness of the grave.
This chapter personifies the suffering of Jerusalem, using similar language of being trapped in darkness and feeling attacked by God.
Jesus's cry from the cross, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' is the ultimate expression of the divine abandonment and darkness articulated in Psalm 88.
Theological Themes
This passage describes the Suffering Servant as 'despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,' reflecting the psalmist's experience.
Discussion Questions
- Why do you think most psalms of lament end with a statement of hope or praise, but Psalm 88 does not? What purpose does this unique, dark ending serve for people of faith?
- The psalmist blames God directly for his suffering (v. 6-8, 16). How does this challenge or comfort your understanding of how to pray when you're angry or feel hurt by God?
- The final verse says, 'my companions have become darkness.' How does this psalm speak to the experience of loneliness in suffering, and how can a community of faith be a light in that darkness for someone?