"A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
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. Selah
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.
Every day I call upon you, O Lord;
I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
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?
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."
Psalm 88
The Psalmist speaks in 9 of the daily prayer that he has made, and this is elaborated in 10-12. For the thought here, cf Psalm 6:5; Psalm 30:9. The thought is that God's power had no opportunity of manifestation in the realm of the dead and the grave. We know, in fact, from the standpoint and perspective of the New Testament, that this is not so - indeed, we know from Abraham's experience that it is not so, for we are told that Abraham accounted that God was able to raise Isaac up even from the dead. But the Psalmist's attitude does not so much indicate a lack of belief in an after-life as simply his concern for God to vindicate His name and His servant before he dies. It is the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living that he wants to see. The final stanza (13-18) is significant for the evidences of the battle in the soul of the Psalmist, as he desperately gropes for a foothold in the darkness. There are two points in particular to note: one is the change of emphasis in the prayer he utters in 13 compared with that in 2. In 2, he prays that his prayer might enter into God's presence; now he says that his prayer will go up to meet God. This is positive, attacking prayer, and shows that there is still fight and hope in him. The other point is that he now asks why this is happening to him. This means that he sees that he is not in the hands of a capricious, arbitrary God, but One Who acts in a way moved by reason and righteousness. And as long as he thinks there is a reason for what he suffers, he is not in absolute darkness. We will point one or two lessons by way of application of the Psalm, in the next Note.