Psalm 88

Psalm Category: Lament

Central Thought: The Lord alone will be my help as I languish in the depths of my sorrows and struggles.

If there were to be a contest for the most dismal song to be used in the worship of God, the prize would have to go to Heman the Ezrahite for Psalm 88. Only in God’s inspired hymnal could such a gloomy composition have found and kept a place! Many psalms wrestle with troubles and end on a rising note. Only this one begins on a high note and quite literally ends “in darkness.”

There is, however, more to it than mere gloom and doom. Here, the psalmist’s dark experience takes us to the cross, to none other than the “man of sorrows,” the Lord Jesus Christ. There are three petitions, which together represent the great issues between us and the Lord when we are in distress: “Will you hear me?” “Will you help me?” and “Will you stick with me?”

Will you hear me, Lord? (vv. 1-9a). Heman first testifies that he is a man of personal faith and persevering prayer: the Lord is the “God of my salvation” (v. 1). This is, however, the high point of his prayer. From this point on it is all about his troubles.

• He cries to God with a trusting humility of mind (v. 2). Notice the resemblance of verses 1-2 to Psalm 22:1-2, where Jesus cries to God, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

• He tells how “down” he is with sorrow of soul (vv. 3-5). He is “adrift among the dead.” Again, we have a pointer to Jesus as He faced the cross: “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (Matt. 26:38a).

• He expresses submission of heart to God’s dealings with him (vv. 6-9a). The key is in verse 7—“Your wrath lies heavy upon me.” This reminds us of Job (Job 13:5) and points to Jesus. “It is the very tone of Gethsemane—‘Nevertheless, not my will.’” (Andrew A. Bonar, Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, p. 264).

Will you help me, Lord? (vv. 9b-12). Heman testifies to being steadfast, in spite of sorrows. His posture suggests intense desperation: “I have stretched out my hands.” His petition confirms this and basically says, “Save me—I am like a dead man!” His supporting arguments are simple enough. How will he praise God in this life, if he just withers and dies? How will God’s lovingkindness, faithfulness, wonder and righteousness be manifested in this world by corpses? (vv. 10-12). The point is, that if I am “dead” in my woes, how can I experience lively blessing in my God? Salvation must spell relief and new life and joy!

Will you stick with me, Lord? (vv. 13-18). Heman testifies that he has kept the faith (vv. 13-14). God has not seemed to reply so far, and the psalmist feels somewhat rejected. But he clings to the conviction that God is his Redeemer. He is no fair-weather believer, whose faith crumbles when rain falls on his life’s picnic!

His request is that the Lord would come into his loneliness of soul and deliver him from his troubles (vv. 15-18). He refers to terrors, to being distraught, and being submerged in God’s fierce wrath and terrors. He knows God is the key to his trials, in all of which he is so alone: “Loved one and friend You have put far from me.” (v. 18a). In his sorrows, however, he never wavers in trusting the Lord to bring him through.

Bishop Horne (1730–92) is surely right to say, “We have in this psalm the voice of our suffering Redeemer.” Jesus, vastly more than any of us, is the “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). This dark psalm takes us into the soul of the sufferings of Jesus like no other—not even Psalm 22. It is not saying too much to understand it as anticipating His bearing the wrath of God’s justice and His being forsaken by His Father in the offering of himself as the sacrifice for sin. It is by His stripes we are healed (Isa. 53:5; 1 Pet. 2:24).

Psalm 88 is dark, and it has no happy ending. But that is its genius, uniqueness and helpfulness! It takes us to Jesus Christ and it brings Him to us. It points us past our sorrows to Jesus Christ, the suffering servant of the Lord, and calls upon us to come to Him, that we would abide in Him, and He in us (John 15:4).