A song, a psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief musician on Mahalath-leannoth, a maskil of Heman the Ezrahite
88:Title Heman is mentioned in 1 Chron 6:33; 16:41, 42, but we know very little about him. This is the only psalm of his we have. Of all the psalms this is the saddest one. There is not a hint of happiness in it. It reveals a heart very badly depressed, a mind filled with gloomy thoughts. In this regard it is similar to certain utterances of Job (chapters 3,6,7) and parts of Lamentations (Lam 3:1-18). \fp God’s servants sometimes may be called to go through such experiences (see Ps 66:11-12; Isa 50:10). At such times prayers like these are acceptable to God. He does not ask us to try to hide from Him what we feel and think. In every experience of life we can pour out our hearts before Him – Ps 62:8. \fp Mahalath-leannoth may have indicated the tune to be used when singing this psalm. It means “Suffering Affliction”. Maskil was probably a literary or musical term.⚜
88
📚O LORD, God of my salvation,I have cried out day and
night before you.
88:1 Observe carefully that in all the darkness that comes over him, and in all the troubles in which he is immersed, he holds to one great truth. The LORD (Jehovah) is the God of his salvation (see also Ps 22:19; 42:5). And he continues to cry out to God though he thinks he has not yet been heard (v 9. Compare Ps 22:2; 86:3; Luke 18:7) – a good example to us all.⚜
2 📚Let my prayer come before you.
Bow down your ear to my cry,
3 📚For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to the grave 📖.
4 📚I am counted with those
who go down into the pit.
I am like a man who has
no strength,
5 📚Adrift among the dead, like the slain
who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more and who
are cut off from the care of your hand.
6 📚You have laid me in the lowest pit,
in darkness, in the depths.
88:3-6 He is so troubled that he feels he is already in the realm of the dead. He probably was suffering with a severe illness. His strength is gone and he thinks he will not live much longer. Illness of the body may cause depression of the mind.⚜
7 📚Your wrath lies heavy on me,
and you have afflicted me
with all your waves. Selah
88:7 He mentions God’s wrath and terrors again in vs 15,16. His experiences made him think that God was angry with him. And it is possible that he was conscious of some sin which brought God’s anger against him. But it may be that he was not guilty, and that God was not angry but only testing His servant as He did Job (Job 6:4; 16:9-17; 31:23). Sickness or other difficult experiences that may come to us are not evidence in themselves that God is angry with us (Job chapters 1 and 2).⚜
8 📚You have put away my
acquaintances far
from me.
You have made me an abomination
to them.
I am shut up, and
I cannot get out.
9 📚My eye wastes away because
of misery.
LORD, I have called out daily
to you,
I have stretched out my hands
to you.
10 📚Will you show wonders
to the dead?
Will the dead rise up and
praise you? Selah
11 📚Will your loving kindness be
declared in the grave, or
your faithfulness in the place of
destruction 📖?
12 📚Will your wonders be known
in the place of darkness,
and your righteousness in the land
of forgetfulness?
88:10-12 In the days in which the author lived little had been revealed about the realm of the dead. Note at Job 10:21-22.⚜
13 📚But to you I have cried out,
O LORD, and in the morning
my prayer comes before you.
14 📚LORD, why do you cast away
my soul?
Why do you hide your face
from me?
15 📚I am afflicted and about
to die from my youth up.
I suffer your terrors and
I am perplexed.
16 📚Your fierce wrath has come
over me.
Your terrors have cut me off.
17 📚All day long they came around
me like water.
They altogether engulfed me.
88:15-17 All day and every day he faced nothing but experiences which caused fear and pain. His were much like Job’s experiences.⚜
18 📚You have put loved one and
friend far from me,
and my acquaintance
into darkness.
88:18 Can one go deeper into depression than the experience seen in this psalm? No light, no comfort, no help, no cheer, no understanding of what was happening – only darkness surrounded him. But after writing this did he not, like Job, find joy in God again? It is not impossible to believe so (Jam 5:11).⚜