Lord, you are the God who saves me
The author of Psalm 88 is at the end of his rope. He opens this Psalm by telling God that he is crying out day and night. Throughout the Psalm, he makes breathtakingly painful comments such as:
Psalm 88:3(NLT) For my life is full of troubles, and death draws near.
Psalm 88:7(NLT) Your anger weighs me down; with wave after wave you have engulfed me.
Psalm 88:15(NLT) I have been sick and close to death since my youth. I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.
Psalm 88:18(NLT) You have taken away my companions and loved ones. Darkness is my closest friend.
In this Psalm, we hear a voice of despair, fear, and hopelessness, crying out to a God who seems silent and absent. This shows that he puts his trust in God. How should one respond when facing such a dark night of the soul?
“Psalm 88 may appear to indicate a loss of faith, but it in fact does the opposite. Continuing to speak to God in the face of His silence is an expression of bold faith. A person who has lost faith might stop praying, choosing not to address a God whose silence they interpret as proof of non-existence. In this Psalm, the Psalmist responds to God’s silence with intense prayer.” – Kathleen Harmon
The writer expresses feelings of being overwhelmed, cut off, forgotten, grieved, rejected, terrified, and in despair. Most poignantly, he cries out to God, wondering where God is during his suffering. The Psalm ends by saying: darkness is my closest friend. However, the hope offered by this Psalm lies not in its ending, but in its beginning.
Psalm 88:1(NIV) LORD, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you.