Psalm 88--I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

Psalm 88
English Standard Version

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
88 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.

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We cry out to the LORD in our deepest, darkest times.  Our greatest times of need.  We want God to save us, but we also want to know that God hears us and sees us in our time of desperation.  The sons of Korah wrote this psalm feeling like their lives were full of trouble and they were either close to physical death (for Sheol means "The Grave") or they are saying that they felt dead inside (how people in the throes of depression say they feel).  I'm going with the second option here as they also describe it as being in dark pit and having no strength, and a feeling of drowning and being beaten by waves.  While there could be something physical attached to this, this sounds like depression to me.  If you have ever gone through it (and I have) you will recognize the descriptions.

Like Job, the Sons of Korah are asking the LORD why He is causing these bad things to happen to them.  Their friends have abandoned them, and they were forced to celebrate and praise the recognition and accomplishments of others while there appeared to be nothing to celebrate in their own lives.  They describe feeling like they are shut in (like in prison) where they can see everything going on outside, but they cannot participate in any of it, and no good thing comes to them.  They cry out for God to do a miracle and break them out of this prison that seems inescapable.  They wonder, "Does God work wonders for the dead?," but, surely, they are not dead yet if they are writing the words to this song.  Yes!  God does work wonders for those who are spiritually dead and makes them spiritually alive!  We call that the miracle of Regeneration!  He also helps those who are depressed and feel dead on the inside too.  Then a theological question arises.  If it is the chief purpose of man to worship the LORD, can those who are dead engage in worship?  If not, would it not be better for God to bring the God-fearing righteous people back to life so that they could continue to worship Him?  (He's actually going to do this in the end times, as that's one of the main reasons for the Resurrection of the Righteous).  However, since the Resurrection of Jesus, to be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD, and we don't have to wait for the resurrection of the righteous to start worshiping the LORD forever and ever.  In fact, we can start with that right now.

The Sons of Korah say they pray to the LORD early in the morning (probably insinuating that they start praying before sunrise), and yet, they feel like God does not hear their prayers and doesn't answer them.  It feels like God has turned away from them and has chosen not to see or hear them.  HIs blessing is no longer on them (which is described as Him turning His face towards someone.  For Him to turn His face away from someone is a sign they are under His wrath and condemnation and not His blessings).  The author has been in peril many times since his youth and been terrified and helpless.  This sounds like someone not at all sure that the LORD will save them now or in eternity.

They feel surrounded by the wrath of God on every side--it's swept over them like the waves of the sea sweep over a drowning man.  They feel like they are being destroyed--like they are fighting to take their final breaths.  Is it worth fighting anymore? Even the author's wife and best friend have shunned him, and all his friends have abandoned him.  While this was written by the Sons of Korah, this sounds like the depression that David experiences when he was being chased by Saul.  People were constantly trying to turn him over to King Saul, his wife was Saul's daughter and abandoned him, and his best friend was Saul's son, Jonathan.  David was stuck with a bunch of individuals that were described as being "worthless" in a moral sense (maybe they could fight, but they did not fear God, and it was trying on David's soul to lead them and have to be around them day in and day out).  He had some of the priests join him, and perhaps the Sons of Korah heard David singing this song to God as a cry for help and they wrote it down.  I'm not sure, but language is similar to psalms we know were written by David at that time, though many others go through times of loss and depression that might cause them to pen something similar.  Whoever wrote the psalm and whatever was behind it, the LORD does hear and answer our prayers and is familiar with abandonment, suffering, and grief.  I think it's even fair to say that Jesus experienced all this pain and helplessness from the cross when He quotes Psalm 22, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?."  We have a Great High Priest who can sympathize with our every weakness.