Psalm 88

Psalms 88

88:1-18 O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day [and] night before thee:

Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man [that hath] no strength:

Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.

Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: [I am] shut up, and I cannot come forth.

Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise [and] praise thee? Selah

Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? [or] thy faithfulness in destruction?

Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

LORD, why castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?

I [am] afflicted and ready to die from [my] youth up: [while] I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, [and] mine acquaintance into darkness.

I came across this Psalm 2 or 3 weeks ago, but decided then not to post about it. I figured that I might have been throwing enough darker stuff out there and this Psalm takes the cake! I had a particularly rough week then on several fronts and really identified with this thing. My relationship with God is a struggle at times and the dynamics of that seems to keep me on track. Its when I get complacent ...

It is quite freeing to me to come to the prayer book of the Bible and find both great joy AND great despair. Its definitely fair to ask, what is this despairing stuff doing in there? I think it has to do with honesty. We all know that we can get really ticked off about the way others treat us, offend us, betray us ... And we also know we really can't control others, nor should we desire to. But we shouldn't be afraid to acknowledge our anger, even rage to God because they aren't so ... "nice." We should give these feelings to God because there is a deep trust that God will know what to do and how to do it, and will do what is just. This is a healthy kind of faith I think. Sometimes, just naming our anger and giving it to Jesus is just the right therapy. Certainly better than trying to control something out of control for sure.

Though the this Psalm ends on a very somber note, what follows it is the 89th Psalm which begins like this:

I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavensNo matter how long the winding trail, no matter how dark the night, His presence will been seen, "...but joy comes with the morning."

I'm at the 89th Psalm place now, but more that likely, surely even, the 88th Psalm place will come again ... and I'll be none to happy about it ... but He is with us ...

Just some thoughts ...