Psalm 88 is a frightening Psalm. It is a song for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. It is subtitled in the King James Version as A Trouble-Filled Soul. The description is of the desperate situation the psalmist is in and the abandonment he feels from the lack of the presence of God. He fears that he will soon die and therefore calls to God for his salvation. He begs for God to hear him.
(A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.) 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:
This is one Psalm where there is no answer from God. God has hidden his face from the psalmist. So it is that we see what it is like to be put into the grave for the unbeliever. They lie in the grave and are no more remembered by God. Cry as they may, they are not heard.
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.
They are in a pit of darkness that is too deep to crawl out of. Everyone they know have been put far from them. Their name is not spoken. They are corrupted by the grave and covered over, there is no escaping death. The dead call daily upon the Lord, but he does not hear them. He shows no wonders to the dead. His loving kindness is not declared in the grave. He hears no prayers from the dead. God has hidden his face.
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?
The psalmist says that he was always headed to death. For the grave is the fate of all men. (Job 5:26) Job tell us that the older we get, the closer to the grave we are, “Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers.” (Job 33:22). Here the psalmist, like so many of us, allowed himself to get distracted and was not ready. To many of us get distracted by the pride of life to prepare for the grave ahead. The psalmist perhaps thinks like many of us, in our times of trouble. Rather than face them we think that it would have been better if we were not even born, then to suffer this place.
He remembers the embraces of loved ones and friends, the joys that the Lord gave him when he was alive, now they have been taken from him in this prison. “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.” (v,18). How sad it is that many have been fooled into the lure of death before their time. Thinking that it would be a welcome release from this life. Some think that it would be a party, or that they could visit their loved ones, but this does not seem so.
I think of the heartbreak when Jesus cried out from the cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22:1) Psalm 22 reflect the same sentiment from a different perspective. This psalm makes it a little more personal in the feeling of the afflicted. When scripture says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4). We see that Jesus is familiar with this pain also. We are reminded by the author of Hebrews that Jesus experience everything that a man can experience in this life… even the feeling of when God turns his face away. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
This psalm truly shows the hopelessness of the soul who has rejected salvation and therefore who God has turned away his face from. Without God there is no salvation. Without Jesus there is no salvation. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Our hope, those who believe upon the salvation of the Lord, Jesus Christ, is that we are not held captive by the grave. “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me.” (Psalms 49:15).
In his gospel account, the Apostle John tell us why he wrote to us, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” (John 20:31) The Apostle Paul tells us that we must believe and confess that belief, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:10) This is because the mouth confesses what is in the heart. God is not cruel in turning away his face. He leaves the choice to you. You can choose to believe, or you can choose to not believe. Interesting thing is that both paths take faith.
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
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