Psalm 88

WEEK  18                                          Psalm 88

WEDNESDAY  Reflections

It is Psalms like this one that convince some that the Jewish people had no concept of life after death. This chapter gives no view of life after death if one has no understanding of Hebrew scholarship. Other passages make clear reference to some view of life after death. Yes, they didn't have a clear picture of what it might be, but they understood there was more to living than just this life.

 

So how do I explain this psalm? First, this writer might not have had any clear picture of an afterlife, so as far as he was concerned, this world was the only place one could serve and praise God. The second, and this is where we fit in, is when all of life goes wrong, and it looks as if God is causing us to face the consequence of our sin, then we only care about this life. Life after this one doesn't matter if what we can or can't do now is the question. "How can we praise you if we are dead?" is a reasonable question when all of life seems set against you.

 

Once again, the Psalms clearly picture the human heart both at its high and here at its lows.  

Psa 88:1-18
(1)  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:
(2)  Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
(3)  For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
(4)  I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
(5)  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.
(6)  Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
(7)  Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
(8)  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.
(9)  Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
(10)  Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.
(11)  Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
(12)  Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
(13)  But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
(14)  LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
(15)  I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
(16)  Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
(17)  They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.
(18)  Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

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