I am a movie rewatcher. Like, over and over again, I am content watching the same movies. It’s funny, because my daughter is in a stage where she loves a certain movie, and I am completely on board with watching the same movie for weeks on end. This also applies to books too – I have a few books and book series that I read over and over again. It’s funny because I really don’t get sick of them – I laugh at the same spots, I cry at the same spots… the predictability of rewatching and rereading is something that I enjoy.

Even though rewatching and rereading is likely controversial, as I have not met many people who like to rewatch or reread to the degree that I do, there are some “knowing the ending” situations where I think just about everyone would agree would be helpful. I think, in life, how helpful would it be if you actually knew the ending sometimes? If you knew that you weren’t going to get the job, you just wouldn’t apply and set yourself up for disappointment. On the other hand, if you knew that you would get the job that you didn’t really think you were capable of getting, you definitely would take the time to apply, interview, and pursue the opportunity. If you knew that you that a relationship would not result in marriage, you would likely consider not dating that person in the first place. If you knew that you wouldn’t be able to have a child, you would save the time, effort, and emotional toll and foster contentness with the life you have instead of pursuing more.

My point is that living this life and following Christ is not a gumball machine, regardless of how much we pray it to be so. We cannot put a quarter in and get a gumball. Even though we wish we could, not every desperate prayer results in a child when you are childless, a marriage when you are single desiring a partner in this life, a job when you want the promotion, and I could go on and on. Our God just doesn’t work this way.

He’s better than that.

I titled this article “Psalm 88”. Nothing fancy. I’ll be honest, my first reaction when I read Psalm 88 was “Whoa, that’s in the Bible?”. It feels uncomfortable to read, because it doesn’t beat around the bush. The author (Heman) does not mask his emotions one bit – he is hurting, and badly. This psalm is raw and honest, through and through, and it can even be hard to read.

The thing is, we know that God is good, God is compassionate, loving, caring, mighty, strong… and the list could go on. There is no evil or sin within Him, yet this writer does not sugarcoat his emotions he is feeling at this time one bit.

Psalm 88:4-5

I am counted among those going down to the Pit. I am like a man without strength, abandoned among the dead. I am like the slain lying in the grave, whom you no longer remember, and who are cut off from your care.

Psalm 88:14

Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you hide. Your face from me?

Psalm 88:18

You have distanced loved one and neighbor from me; darkness is my only friend.

Here’s the real question: do you ever think that you’ll find a sign at Hobby Lobby with those verses on it?

And another question (on a more serious note): if someone read only these verses, what would they think of our God? Would they want to worship Him?

I’ll tell you that this Psalm does not scare me one bit or make me doubt one bit as to who the Father is, as I know that the entire bible tells me over and over again that I have a good, good father, yet I could see how these verses could be extremely hard for a new Christian. They certainly make me feel uncomfortable, because they create an inconsistency between who I know God to be and who the writer here is telling me that God is.

I won’t pretend to know everything about this psalm, but I do know that it teaches me a few things:

This psalm is important, because it is in the Bible.

It would be extremely easy to take that inconsistency between who I know God to be and who this psalm portrays God to be, decide that they don’t match, then move to Psalm 89. However, I remember this:

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

So you mean to tell me that this was inspired by God? A psalm that is questioning God’s good character was inspired by God?

Not only that, but this psalm is helping sanctify us, that we may be “complete, equipped for every good work”?

Yep.

The hands of humans physically wrote this book, but it was all inspired by God. The fact that this is in our bible means that God wants us to read this psalm and learn from it.

So, what on earth could we learn from this?

This psalm teaches us that we are to be persistent in prayer.

Among all of the extremely challenging things to read in Psalm 88, I cannot help but notice that this writer continues to be persistent in prayer to the Lord, even though it is not easy.

Psalm 88:1-2

Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before you day and night. May my prayer reach your presence; listen to my cry.

Did you catch that? “Day and night”. This writer, even though he is struggling hard, is praying to God continuously. There’s really no gap in the time he is spending praying to the Lord, really. He’s persistent.

Psalm 88:9

My eyes are worn out from crying. Lord, I cry out to you all day long; I spread my hands out to you.

Clearly, the writer is exhausted here. We do not know the context surrounding this psalm, but we do know that this pain has caused significant disruption of this writer’s life and well-being, to the point where there is no relief from it and he is exhausted. Yet, what does he do? Did you catch that? “I spread my hands out to you”. The Hebrew word for “to spread” is “shatakh”, meaning spreading or expanding. I don’t know about you, but at times one of my responses to pain or grief is to shy away. If I’m struggling, at times I am tempted to pull away, yet this writer teaches us that the right response is to “expand” towards Him with open hands, even in the midst of our deepest pains.

Psalm 88:13

I call to you for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer meets you.

What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Roll over and check your phone? This writer teaches us that we are to immediately turn to Him at the beginning of our day.

This psalm teaches us that it is good to be honest with God.

I don’t know why on earth we think that we can hide anything from God, but it stems all the way back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis, where Adam and Eve hid from God after they ate the fruit that God told them not to eat, like they had any ability to hide from God anyways. It seems crazy to me that this was the response, yet I cannot ignore this pattern in my life too. I have been getting significantly better at bringing my sin and disobedience to God, but at times I tend to “beat around the bush” and not bring this directly to the Lord, wrongly thinking that “if I don’t tell Him, maybe He won’t know”. Clearly I forget who I’m dealing with here, as He is all-knowing.

Psalm 139:1-4

Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; you are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know all about it, Lord.

Hebrews 4:13

No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.

He knows everything, so why on earth would we feel like we have any ability to hide anything from Him? He knows my thoughts and my words before they even happen, and it’s all exposed to Him anyways.

But here’s the catch – when I tend to keep things to myself in life, it’s because I don’t want what I say to impact how others see me or see others. In the context of prayer, specifically with things that are uncomfortable, I often fall into the pattern of thinking that “if I tell God this, then He’ll think differently of me”, but this is simply not true. Because of all that Christ has done, taking on the wrath of God for my sin, God no longer sees me, but instead He sees Christ within me. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us “He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” and 1 Peter 2:24 tells us “He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls”. Because of the gospel of Christ, we no longer have a barrier between us and God, but instead are invited into a personal relationship with our creator, so that we have the ability to bring anything and everything to Him in full transparency and eagerly anticipate the grace and compassion of the Father as a result of what Christ has done for us. He doesn’t want your lies or your “sugar-coated” version of how you are feeling, but He wants the fullness of your heart so that by His grace, He can bring about divine transformation and sanctification. In your struggles, He works, and sometimes it just takes being honest with Him. When we are honest with Him, we leave room for Him to work and show us who He really is.

This Psalm teaches us that some prayers remain open-ended.

Rolling back towards the gumball-machine God that I had alluded to before… we don’t put a prayer in and immediately receive an answer. Scripture tells us time and time again of His understanding that is so much bigger than we could ever imagine.

Psalm 147:5

Our Lord is great, vast in power; His understanding is infinite.

Romans 11:33-34

Oh, the depth of the riches and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know Him, and He will make your paths straight.

I think that we tend to believe we know what is best, and that our understanding is perfect and good. However, it is extremely humbling to come to the realization that despite how smart or wise we are, we truly cannot understand more than the Father does. Not only does He understand our situations here on earth better than we do, but He understands everyone’s situations and how they work together in the ultimate plan far greater than we ever could imagine too. The writer of Psalm 88, Heman, was clearly going through a lot at the time he wrote this psalm. The psalm references his life being near Sheol, without strength, abandoned, cut off, in the darkest places, God’s wrath weighing heavily on him, overwhelmed, distanced from friends, rejected, out of the sight of the Lord, and ultimately near death. Oofda. This man was in the depths of suffering at the time he wrote this psalm. Yet not once does he say “but I got this, God!” Or “but I know you’ll pull through in the ways that I want, God!”. He instead is persistent in prayer towards the one who has control. There’s no outcome listed here. It’s simply a person who is struggling and bringing those struggles honestly to the one who has control. We have no idea if these desperate prayers were answered, but we do know that the writer brings them to God anyways, and I think that we can definitely learn something from that ourselves.

We learn that the proper place to look amidst a struggle is to Him.

Not once does Heman mention looking to anything else but God, and I think that is worth noting here. I found this incredibly interesting. Our world tells us that there’s a “fix” for everything, and we live in a world that is notorious for looking to everything but God to solve our problems. Yet, three times in this 18 verse psalm, Heman tells us that he continues to call to God for help through prayer and crying out to Him. Even though we cannot see a true resolution and there really doesn’t seem to be much expression of hope by Heman, Heman still called out to the Lord and that means something. Heman was looking to the Lord in his trials and suffering, and we are called to do the same.

I really could go on and on, but I won’t. As I continue looking over this psalm time and time again, I continue to pull things out of it. Yet, one of the things I find most encouraging is that we can take anything and everything to God with full transparency and honesty.

*When we are struggling to put things into words, bring what you can to God.

*When it seems near-impossible to praise the Lord, bring that to Him anyways.

*When it feels like He is silent, continue to pray anyways.

*When we cannot seem to see a way through it all, continue to bring it to Him anyways.

Psalm 88 is included in the Bible for a reason, and God wants us to learn from it. Even though there is no obvious hope or praise in Psalm 88 specifically, we have the entirety of the Bible to know who God is, and we know that He is many things. He is kind and compassionate, merciful and just. He hears prayers and He provides answers. He has understanding that we could not possibly have and wisdom that we could not possibly understand. He knows everything and through it all, He is good. All of His word is true, therefore we can fully trust in the goodness of who He is in the depths of Psalm 88 too.

Praise be to God.