Every Day I Call Upon You – Psalm 88

In his book, Trusting God in the Darkness: A Guide to Understanding the Book of Job by Christopher Ash, he writes, “The seeking required of us is not ultimately the seeking for philosophical answers or even for practical wisdom; it is the seeking after God himself. This is, we remember, one of the great marks we have noted of Job the believer. For while he cannot make head or tail of his perplexities, in his heart and with his voice he longs passionately for God. And in so doing, in continuing to fear God and turn from evil, he is precisely on the right track.”  This is what we see in this psalm.

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.  Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!

For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.  I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength, 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.  You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.  Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah

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; my eye grows dim through sorrow.  Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.  Do you work wonders for the dead?  Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah   Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?  Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.  O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?  Why do you hide your face from me?  Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.  Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me.  They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together.  You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.  (Psalm 88 ESV)

Like Job, this prayer is made in the midst of despair, not seeing God’s answer, feeling abandoned by God and one’s companions, yet looking still to Yahweh for the answer.  There are times when our faith seems unrewarded and yet we cling to God as the only One, the only answer.  This psalm envisions no explicit deliverance but knows only that deliverance must come from God.  If we are companions of someone who is in this place we must not be those companions who shun our brother or sister.  We must not be like Job’s friends, but must love and pray for our hurting fellow believer.