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Darkness is My Only Companion

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(A song and a psalm by the clan of Korah for the music leader. To the tune “Mahalath Leannoth.” A special psalm by Heman the Ezrahite.)

A Prayer When You Can't Find the Way

1You keep me safe, Lord God.

So when I pray at night,

2please listen carefully

to each of my concerns.

3I am deeply troubled

and close to death;

4I am as good as dead

and completely helpless.

5I am no better off

than those in the grave,

those you have forgotten

and no longer help.

6You have put me in the deepest

and darkest grave;

7your anger rolls over me

like ocean waves.

8You have made my friends turn

in horror from me.

I am a prisoner

who cannot escape,

9and I am almost blind

because of my sorrow.

Each day I lift my hands

in prayer to you, Lord.

10Do you work miracles

for the dead?

Do they stand up

and praise you?

11Are your love and loyalty

announced in the world

of the dead?

12Do they know of your miracles

or your saving power

in the dark world below

where all is forgotten?

13Each morning I pray

to you, Lord.

14Why do you reject me?

Why do you turn from me?

15Ever since I was a child,

I have been sick

and close to death.

You have terrified me

and made me helpless.

16Your anger is like a flood!

And I am shattered

by your furious attacks

17that strike each day

and from every side.

18My friends and neighbors

have turned against me

because of you,

and now darkness

is my only companion.

Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®) © 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
See this passage in other languages or Bible versions

Reflect

Psalm 88 may be the darkest of all the lament psalms. While most laments end with a note of praise, Psalm 88 ends with the plaintive statement that “darkness is my only companion” (v 18). The psalmist tells us that he has been sick and near death since he was a child (v 15). He has been abandoned by his friends and relatives (v 18). His sufferings come close to that of Job! Like Job he keeps praying to God to help him, but still the psalmist hasn’t heard back from God. God seems deaf to his cries. Even so, he does not turn away from God, but continues his efforts to get God to rescue him from his difficult predicament. In this, he is a model of persistent prayer. Even when it does not appear to us that God hears our prayer after a very long time, we should never give up, but keep asking him to help us. We don’t know whether God ever did choose to answer this prayer. He may not have healed him. But God does not get upset with us as long as we keep reaching out to him. This is an important point because some Christians wrongly believe that we should never complain to God, but we should just bear our struggles stoically until the end.

We have an advantage over the psalmist. We live after the coming of Jesus and, in the light of the New Testament we have a fuller understanding of the afterlife than the psalmist. He felt that death was the end (vv. 10-12). What justice could there be if a godly person suffered in this life and if death was the end of the story. We know that we might suffer to the bitter end, but that God will welcome us into that celestial city, the New Jerusalem, a metaphor for heaven (Rev. 21-22), where we will live in God’s presence forever.

Respond

Oh Lord, as the psalmist tells, us you are the God who saves (v 1, NIV), but sometimes in your sovereign wisdom you chose to let us suffer. We do pray that you will bring us out of our pain, but we also ask that you give us the faith that we need to trust you even when we do experience difficulties.

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Tremper Longman III

Dr. Tremper Longman III (B.A. Ohio Wesleyan University; M.Div. Westminster Theological Seminary; M.Phil. and Ph.D. Yale University) is Distinguished Scholar and Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Westmont College. He has written over 30 books which have been translated into seventeen different languages. In addition, as a Hebrew scholar, he is one of the main translators of the popular New Living Translation of the Bible. His most recent book is How to Read Daniel. Tremper and Alice currently reside in Alexandria, VA and have three sons (Tremper IV, Timothy, Andrew) and four granddaughters (Gabrielle, Mia, Ava, and Emerson). For exercise, he enjoys playing squash.

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suffering, faith, persistent prayer


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