Psalm 88 - ESV (Reformed Caucus)

Blue Letter Bible ^ | Long Time Ago | God

[HarleyD]

Psa 88:1 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.

Psa 88:2 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!

Psa 88:3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.

Psa 88:4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength,

Psa 88:5 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.

Psa 88:6 You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.

Psa 88:7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah

Psa 88:8 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;

Psa 88:9 my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.

Psa 88:10 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah

Psa 88:11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Psa 88:12 Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

Psa 88:13 But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.

Psa 88:14 O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?

Psa 88:15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.

Psa 88:16 Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me.

Psa 88:17 They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together.

Psa 88:18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.

[Blado]

Walk softly

And carry a Big CAIN

-God

[HarleyD]

Psalms ping....

This is an interesting Psalm. We normally think of all psalms having at least one happy thought. However, this psalm sound very dreary unless one looks below the surface about God calling us to humility.

[Quix]

Thanks for the honor of your ping.

[Quix]

I suppose one could construe it as a call to humility.

Some of us have lived that Psalm rather painfully, extensively and for long periods. Even decades later, it’s still hard to articulate well about that period and what all God was doing in that process.

Certainly one of the results of such a process is a stripping off of everything but God. The pain is excuciating enough . . . one rather quickly wants nothing else but God’s will, healing, deliverance, anointing, wholeness, . . . in one’s life. That’s a good focus.

The tuition getting there can be everything—even things and parts one didn’t know existed.