Psalm 88 Commentary
Save Me From Death
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KEY THOUGHT: Shall [f]the dead arise and praise You? [Psalm 88:10b NKJV]
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Psalm 88 NKJV
A Prayer for Help in Despondency
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician. Set to “Mahalath Leannoth.” A [a]Contemplation of Heman the Ezrahite.
88 O Lord, God of my salvation,
I have cried out day and night before You.
2 Let my prayer come before You;
[b]Incline 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[c] down to the pit;
I am like a man who has no strength,
5 [d]Adrift among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in the grave,
Whom You remember no more,
And who are cut off from Your hand.
6 You have laid me in the lowest pit,
In darkness, in the depths.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah
8 You have [e]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 affliction.
Lord, I have called daily upon You;
I have stretched out my hands to You.
10 Will You work wonders for the dead?
Shall [f]the dead arise and praise You? Selah
11 Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave?
Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?
12 Shall Your wonders be known in the dark?
And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
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 off my soul?
Why do You hide Your face from me?
15 I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth;
I suffer Your terrors;
I am distraught.
16 Your fierce wrath has gone over me;
Your terrors have [g]cut me off.
17 They came around me all day long like water;
They engulfed me altogether.
18 Loved one and friend You have put far from me,
And my acquaintances into darkness.
Footnotes
a. Psalm 88:1 Heb. Maschil
b. Psalm 88:2 Listen to
c. Psalm 88:4 Die
d. Psalm 88:5 Lit. Free
e. Psalm 88:8 taken away my friends
f. Psalm 88:10 shades, ghosts
g. Psalm 88:16 destroyed me
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Psalm 88 Commentary
A Petition to Be Saved from Death
The New Testament saint doesn’t have the fears of this psalm. We are drawn to the LORD of the resurrection. By believing in Jesus, we have life. The words of the LORD Jesus Christ remain with us.
“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” John 11, verses 25 and 26.
We want to read this psalm within its own context. Death was to be feared. It meant an end to everything. There are several references to the afterlife, but generally, death was considered the final nail in the coffin of existence.
Even today, and amongst the unbelievers, the fear of death is quite intense.
Strangely, the psalm holds true for the wicked of today. This life and all its meaningless pursuits are all there is for them. It is a dead-end tunnel for them. All hope for a better situation ends at the grave. So they seek to create their own Eden here and now.
However, the psalmist has a nobler reason for his fears. His death is Heaven’s loss. Who will provide worship? Won’t the LORD God miss the praises from the psalmist? The thought here could be that the saint must look at their continued existence in the light of service in the vineyard. Of course, unlike the psalmist, the saint knows death is a gain.
As a prayer, this psalm has some deep reflections. The confession that the psalmist has suffered from his youth may sound negative, but again, the saint knows better. It is God’s will that the saint lives in fragility. He is housed in a clay pot. It should easily break under any form of pressure.
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” Second Corinthians 4 verses 8 to 10.
It is a miracle that the clay pot survives to see the next day. All to the glory of the Creator God!
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