Psalms 88 · ESV Study Bible

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

PSALM 88 [†] O LORD, c God of my salvation;

I d cry out day and night before you.

2 Let my prayer come before you;

e incline your ear to my cry!

3[^][†] For my soul is full of troubles,

and f my life draws near to g Sheol.

4 I am counted among those who h 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 i you remember no more,

for they are j cut off from your hand.

6 You have put me in k the depths of the pit,

in the l regions dark and m deep.

7 Your wrath n lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with o all your waves. Selah

8 You have caused p my companions to shun me;

you have made me q a horror [2] to them.

I am r shut in so that I cannot escape;

9 s my eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call upon you, O LORD;

I t spread out my hands to you.

10[†] Do you work wonders for the dead?

u 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 v wonders known in w the darkness,

or your righteousness in the land of x forgetfulness?

13[†] But I, O LORD, cry y to you;

z in the morning my prayer comes before you.

14 O LORD, why a do you cast my soul away?

Why b do you hide your face from me?

15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am helpless. [3]

16 Your wrath has swept over me;

your c dreadful assaults destroy me.

17 They d surround me like a flood e all day long;

they f close in on me together.

18 You have caused g my beloved and my friend to shun me;

my companions have become darkness. [4]

A Maskil [1] of h Ethan the Ezrahite.

PSALM—NOTE ON 88:1–2 I Cry to You, O Lord. The song opens by declaring its purpose: Let my prayer come before you. The psalm is therefore a petition; it belongs to a circumstance that is earnest (day and night, i.e., there is nothing easygoing here!) and urgent (I cry out, my cry; i.e., a great feeling of distress lies behind it).

PSALM—NOTE ON Psalm 88. This is an individual lament, suited for a person who is so overwhelmed with troubles that even his friends shun him, and who wrestles with the dread that comes from suspecting that the Lord has shunned him as well. The psalm does not specify the troubles, only that they feel like expressions of God’s relentless wrath; this allows the psalm to be used by the faithful for a wide variety of hardships. Most laments let in a ray of sunshine, usually closing on a confident note; Psalm 88 is distinct from all the rest in that there is no explicit statement of confidence. There is an implicit confidence, however, in vv. 6 and 14: the song confesses that it is God who has brought these troubles, implying that relief is also in God’s hand. Further, there is insistent appeal to God (v. 1, “day and night”; v. 9, “every day”; v. 13, “in the morning”): the psalm instills a tough faith in its singers by reminding them to keep turning to God (the “God of my salvation,” v. 1), even during these times when it seems that there is no answer being given. (The experiences of Job provide a good example of this kind of suffering. Sickness, bereavement, and persecution can easily lead to such distress.) Since Psalm 88 is in the canonical Psalms, the faith of this psalm cannot be separated from the faith expressed in the rest of the book, and it helps its singers to see that faith can be real, even when it cannot arrive at strong hope after prayer. Those without such problems may pray this psalm on behalf of those suffering.

PSALM—NOTE ON 88:10–12 Do the Dead Praise You? The mention of dying under God’s wrath (vv. 3–7) leads to the question: Do you work wonders for the dead? The purpose of this question is not to deny that the OT has a hope for the afterlife (see Psalms 49; 73; cf. note on Ezek. 37:12–13) but rather to allow worshipers who feel the pain of Ps. 88:3–9 to continue expressing their fears. If one were to die under God’s wrath, then he could not anticipate any experience of God’s wonders, or any chance to praise him, in Abaddon (the place of destruction). The person who sings this in the worshiping congregation obviously does not want to perish in this way (an important component of faith), cut off from God’s steadfast love and faithfulness (v. 11).