Faith in Dark Times

Our church prayed Psalm 88 today, because it is in the Morning Prayer cycle. I have grown to love praying the psalms, because they are prayers from God. I also love them because they give me words and images to cherish throughout the day.

Sometimes, however, the psalmist asks me to say things that I do note feel. On occasion, s/he is happier than I am. At other times, s/he is feeling down or struggling, while I am not. Praying the assigned psalms is a great reminder that praying is not only about "me and God", we pray as church and the church does not always feel the same way I do...

Psalm 88 is not an upbeat prayer. Usually, the dark psalms end with light and hope. The prayer-poet declares God is faithful, bemoans the current suffering, then ends with a renewed belief in God's power to save and His has delivered the supplicant. Today, not so much. Pretty bleak prayer from beginning to end.

The model of praying psalms I espouse is to pray it three times, once as me, once listening to Jesus pray it, and once in communion with the church. Today Psalm 88 resonates with the wider church for me. Part of my job is to accompany people into death. Frequently, I am invited in to share this most intimate time of their life because there is no other who will do this with them. Or maybe they are alone. Death is real and dying can be terribly difficult on the body and the soul. We are spiritual beings, but we are also bodies. Pain, suffering and the unending battering can drive a person to despair. I hear it. I see it in terrorized eyes streaming tears. And I stand outside, speaking words of faith and hope into hearts and minds which are sometimes hard to hear and believe.

I prayed Ps 88, thinking of several people whom I have prayed with the last couple days, good people who "cry out day and night," who feel "distanced from friends" and abandoned to "the nethermost Pit, in darkness, in the depths." (phrases from Robert Alter's Psalm translation). Then there is the ultimate question (88:11-12) "Will you work wonders for the dead? Will the shades arise and acclaim you? Will your kindness be told in the grave, Your faithfulness in perdition?" This is a question many ask. It is why I pray the psalm three times in my meditation. I need to share the journey with those who are beaten down and afraid. But I need hope, too, so I listen intently when Jesus prays the psalm (remembering that He suffered terribly and died miserably) and I see a smile on His face. For these questions are all answered by Him in the affirmative. Yes, the dead will see God's wonders. Yes, the shades arise! Yes, the kindness of God is at the grave and His faithfulness is manifest in deepest, darkest death. "Yes!" says the Resurrected One, "there is cause to have hope, even joy, in the face of it all."

Psalm 88 must be prayed and heard, even if I am not feeling its heaviness, there are others who do. I must pray with and for them. But I pray with Jesus, in Jesus, through Jesus. Jesus who died, and rose, and reigns forever. And I can see my own death as a passage to greater life and peace.


Bible Gateway is a great tool!
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+88&version=RSV
Here is Psalm 88 Revised Standard Version (RSV)

Prayer for Help in Despondency

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

88 O Lord, my God, I call for help^[a] by day;
    I cry out in the night before thee.
² Let my prayer come before thee,
    incline thy ear to my cry!

³ For my soul is full of troubles,
    and my life draws near to Sheol.
⁴ I am reckoned among those who go down to the Pit;
    I am a man who has no strength,
⁵ like one forsaken among the dead,
    like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom thou dost remember no more,
    for they are cut off from thy hand.
⁶ Thou hast put me in the depths of the Pit,
    in the regions dark and deep.
⁷ Thy wrath lies heavy upon me,
    and thou dost overwhelm me with all thy waves.Selah
⁸ Thou hast caused my companions to shun me;
    thou hast made me a thing of horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
⁹     my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon thee, O Lord;
    I spread out my hands to thee.
¹⁰ Dost thou work wonders for the dead?
    Do the shades rise up to praise thee?Selah
¹¹ Is thy steadfast love declared in the grave,
    or thy faithfulness in Abaddon?
¹² Are thy wonders known in the darkness,
    or thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³ But I, O Lord, cry to thee;
    in the morning my prayer comes before thee.
¹⁴ O Lord, why dost thou cast me off?
    Why dost thou hide thy face from me?
¹⁵ Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
    I suffer thy terrors; I am helpless.^[b]
16 Thy wrath has swept over me;
    thy dread assaults destroy me.
¹⁷ They surround me like a flood all day long;
    they close in upon me together.
¹⁸ Thou hast caused lover and friend to shun me;
    my companions are in darkness.