Darkness
My Morning Routine
Starting on April 13, 2020, I’ve read one psalm a day, every day. When I get to the last psalm in the Bible—Psalm 150, I just start the next day with Psalm 1; every 150 days I read through the entire psalter, and then begin again.
There is something attractively simple about this plan; I use a countdown app on my iPhone to remind me each morning of that day’s psalm. I do our church reading plans, too, but reading a psalm a day has been a constant.
Today I’m on Psalm 88. If you’d like to join in, my friend Fred has put together a list for the Psalms reading plan I’m currently in. When we get to Monday, May 2, I’ll start over again.
The Psalms teach us how to pray because they give us words for all the emotions of life; today’s psalm—as we will see below—is bitter and dark, but tomorrow’s will be more hopeful and joy-filled.
Mark Begins Wednesday!
Our Lenten reading plan through the Gospel of Mark begins Wednesday, and since our Ephesians plan concluded on Friday, I thought I’d write a post for today and again for tomorrow on each day’s psalm.
The Bitterest Psalm in the Bible
Today, I read Psalm 88—a psalm without hope or joy or peace: it is an anguished cry of bitter despair.
When you visit Jerusalem, one of the places you go is the high priest’s residence, which was built over a dungeon. When we were there, we went down into the pit and read this psalm. The idea is that it’s possible that Jesus might have been held in that dungeon as Caiaphas waited to transfer him to Pilate’s custody, late Thursday night/early Friday morning.
How to Read Psalm 88 Today
If you are in a pit of despair yourself, then use this psalm to shape your cries to the Lord today. The psalms give us the language of prayer, and since life include both misery and joy, so do the psalms.
If you are in a good place today—and I hope you are—then the way to read this psalm is to think of Jesus being held by the Temple soldiers, having been interrogated and humiliated by the Jewish authorities, waiting to be transferred to Pilate’s custody, knowing what will befall him.
This is a dark psalm, but the Passion of the Christ was a dark thing, and it’s good for us to remember that today.
Psalm 88
I Cry Out Day and Night Before You
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
1 O Lord, God of my salvation,
I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!3 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
5 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.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah8 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;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O Lord;
I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?13 But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.