The Bible is full of passages speaking to the greatness of God; so much so that mainstream Christianity believes God is perfectly moral. But is this really the case? Psalm 88 may give us a clue.
Psalm 88 is a chapter of the Bible that evangelicals and fundamentalists prefer to skip over. Whereas much of the Bible is full of people singing God’s praises and speaking of his perfection, Psalm 88 does the opposite. The author of this psalm is so entrenched in suffering that he cannot speak of God the way his biblical counterparts do. The result we have today is one of the rawest, most insightful, and most human chapters of the Bible. And it is absolutely beautiful.
I first stumbled across this Psalm during my second semester of biblical studies. It was also two weeks or so before my mother passed away from liver cancer. One of the few pastors I have ever appreciated, the late Timothy Keller, preached a sermon on living through dark times. His source for this sermon, the greatest sermon I ever heard, is Psalm 88. When I heard him read this chapter, I was stunned. This biblical author did not sugarcoat his struggles. He radically questions the goodness of God. Can we not do the same?
Hearing this sermon, which I have included the link to in the footnote, certainly changed my life.1 Had I not heard this sermon or read this Psalm, the process of grief would have been much darker and strenuous than it already was. Whereas Christians have always answered my question of suffering with “God works in mysterious ways” or “Everything happens for a reason,” Psalm 88 opened my eyes to the need for skepticism of God’s “mysterious ways.”
Those of us who have departed the church, or are still involved to some degree, have all been told that it is wrong to question God. After all, he is always right, just, and moral, correct? When somebody is going through a crisis, we do not need to tell them that they are in the wrong to question God. We should encourage them to ask these questions. Repressing our true feelings of God and the world cause nothing but more harm.
Background: An Anonymous Psalmist?
We do not know much about the author of Psalm 88; unlike most psalms, it is not attributed to King David or Asaph. Verse 0 in the CJB reads, “A song. A psalm of the sons of Korach. For the leader. Set to ‘Sickness that Causes Suffering.’ A maskil of Heiman the Ezrachi.” This is the only contribution attributed to Heiman in the Hebrew Bible (whether he truly wrote it or not). Heiman is mentioned in 1 Kings 4:31, described as a wiseman and poet during the time of King Solomon.2
Throughout the psalm, Heiman speaks as though he is on his deathbed. Scholars debate whether this is literal or figurative; suggestions include that he is indeed dying, he is struggling with spiritual depression, or the psalm is a reflection of the biblical character Job.3 Whatever the case may be, one thing is for certain; whatever evil circumstances the psalmist is facing, he struggles with knowing that it is all God’s fault.4
Psalm 88:1-2
Adonai, God of my salvation,
Psalm 88:1-2
when I cry out to you in the night,
let my prayer come before you,
turn your ear to my cry for help!
The psalm begins with an honest, sincere cry to the God of the author’s understanding. As one commentator denotes, “Indeed, by the end of the psalm, this one line will scarcely be remembered for all of the pain that pours out.”5 Another writes that verse one is the “only clear statement of faith” within the psalm.6 The psalmist is both angry and depressed throughout the remainder.
There exists plenty of quality research exploring the psychological connotations of the psalmist’s plea in Psalm 88. Humans behave and react in psychological manners as a result of trauma.7 The Kubler-Ross model, for instance, offers behavioral responses to times of distress including denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Each of these emotions is present in Psalm 88 except for denial and acceptance.8 In verses 3-5 particularly, which we will explore below, the author clearly expresses depression.
Psalm 88:3
For I am oversupplied with troubles,
Psalm 88:3
which have brought me to the brink of Sh’ol.
After the psalmist’s singular thought of adoration, the tone immediately changes to death and despair. Heiman speaks of being troubled to such an extreme that he is close to Sheol (death). Richard D. Philips believes that, if composed today, the author would likely be battling cancer because he continually grows weaker and knows that death is imminent.9
Now, I of course want to comment on the psalmist’s statement that he is close to Sheol. I have previously discussed the concept of Sheol as it pertains to the afterlife. Sheol is not our contemporary concept of hell. It is simply the grave. It is the place everyone goes after death, according to the Hebrew Bible.
Psalm 88:4-5
For I am oversupplied with troubles,
Psalm 88:4-5
which have brought me to the brink of Sh’ol.
I am counted among those going down to the pit,
like a man who is beyond help,
When fraught with suffering, we tend to question where God is. The church tells us that God is everywhere; he is omnipresent. But in this Psalm, God is not absent from the psalmist’s suffering; he is actively present, but in a hostile manner.10 Much like in the book of Amos, God is the direct cause of the psalmist’s suffering. Contrary to another modern theodicy, the psalmist’s suffering does not come from a satan figure. It comes from the God he serves.
Now, let us examine the feelings this psalmist is conveying. He speaks out of great anguish and despair. In verses 4-5, he identifies himself as: one cast down to Sheol, one “going down to the pit” and “like a man who is beyond help.” Whereas much of the Bible states that God is present during times of suffering, Psalm 88 is marred with images of abandonment, divine hostility, and lostness.11
Another focus in this psalm is satisfaction with life. Throughout the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, we read stories of characters who depart from life having lived a successful or fulfilled life or finding the favor of God before death.12 However, in Psalm 88, the author recognizes that he has achieved neither of these. Instead, he accepts that he must find satisfaction in the pain and misery that has marked his life; that is his greatest accomplishment, which he is forced to reflect upon on his deathbed.
Conclusion
The composer of Psalm 88 has every right to protest the goodness of God. In what I have described of Psalm 88, the psalmist paints a picture of the suffering through which he is living. Verses 1-5 describe the psalmist’s suffering; the remainder of the psalm consists of his rebuke of God. What we understand thus far is that Heiman is dying. Whether is death is physical, mental, or spiritual, we know that he is at his end.
He has faced the wrath of God. For what cause? For any cause at all? We will explore this more in future posts. We can acknowledge that the suffering Heiman faces is not the direct cause of Satan. It is not the cause of physical enemies. It is God’s fault. It is God’s fault that that Heiman is in such agonizing pain. And we shall soon see what the biblical author has to say about the inflictor of his suffering.
- Timothy Keller, “How to Deal With Dark Times,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulmaUtbayGY
2. Phillips, Richard D. Psalms 73-106. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2020, 154. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/reader.action?docID=6470298
3. Ibid.
4. Laha, Robert R. “Between Text and Sermon: Psalm 88.” Interpretation (Richmond) 69, no. 1 (2015): 81. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=2a863135-7b18-43e7-9255-23aca6885a2e%40redis
5. deClaisse-Walford, Nancy L., et al. The Book of Psalms, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/liberty/detail.action?docID=4860097, 511.
6. Phillips, Richard D. Psalms 73-106. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2020, 154.
7. Jameson, Beverley. “Difficult Texts: Psalm 88.” Theology. 117, no. 5 (2014): 357. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/0040571X14537435
8. Ibid., 358.
9. Phillips, Richard D. (Richard Davis). Psalms 73-106. Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2020. 154.
10. Fabrikant-Burke, O. “Rethinking Divine Hiddenness in the Hebrew Bible: The Hidden God as the Hostile God in Psalm 88.” Harvard Theological Review 114, no. 2 (04, 2021): 159-81, https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/rethinking-divine-hiddenness-hebrew-bible-hidden/docview/2529142003/se-2.
11. deClaisse-Walford, Nancy L., et al. The Book of Psalms, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014, 512.
12. Mare, Leonard P. “Facing the Deepest Darkness of Despair and Abandonment: Psalm 88 and the Life of Faith.” Old Testament Essays 27, no. 1 (2014): 182.