Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Ps 88:1-2 and following. Indeed, this psalm is one of the darkest pages of the entire Word of God. It is all about darkness and death. Not a ray of light shines in it; the soul in distress finds no prospect of deliverance. And yet a servant of God was able to say that this psalm had for some time been the only one that would have consoled him. Expressing the thoughts of a believer, he proved to him that he could also be a believer, even if he went through terrible soul anxieties, during which heaven seemed closed to him. Is a reader also troubled, waiting for God to enlighten him about his condition and give him – or make him regain – the assurance of his salvation? Well! his very torments and sighs toWard God are proof that the divine life is within Him; an unbeliever has never sighed toward God.
“In the morning my prayer goes before you,” says the psalmist (verse 14). Let’s imitate him; Let us expose to the Lord as soon as we wake up the circumstances of the day that begins, not just those that worry us (Ps 5:1-7). Finally, in some verses, the depth of anguish, pain, and loneliness carries the believer’s thoughts on the One who was the Supreme Afflicted (e.g., verses 7-9 and 17-19).
For we hear in this psalm one of the cries of man who begged the One who could save him from death (Heb. 5:7); a cry, perhaps, in the interval between his arrest in the garden and the cross. And all had then abandoned him, and he himself could not go out (v.9, 18, 19). The death sentence then weighed heavily on him, although he was “exhaling from his youth” (v. 16), or “dying every day,” as the apostle put it. But especially in the meantime, he was “lying among the dead.” Then it was the three hours of darkness (with the completion of the shedding of his blood, that is, the complete gift of his life), hours during which he suffered the judgment of sin from a righteous God, whose hand struck him. For, let us not forget, during his life Jesus suffered at the hands of man because he was righteous. But at the end of his life, God had to strike him, because he was made sin for us.
And no ray of divine favor could pierce the darkness of the three hours of atonement. He was there, in the place where the sin was, the victim, “made sin for us,” and God could only hide his face and leave him entirely in darkness. Jesus asks here (Ps. 6:6; 30:10; 115:17) to be delivered from death, for the reason that the dead cannot celebrate God, nor can the sheol tell of his goodness. For God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. “The living, the living is the one who will praise you,” says Hezekiah, taught by the Spirit to open his mouth, in the consciousness of being on the ground of the resurrection. Thus Jesus asks for deliverance by invoking this precious reason, that God is known, not in death, but in life. “I will not die, but I will live, and I will tell the works of Jehovah.”
Thus, Ps 88 places the residue under the deep and terrible feeling of the broken law and the ardent wrath of God, coming to justice upon those who have behaved in this way! It is no longer about external suffering or the oppression of enemies, but about something infinitely deeper between the soul and God. Although God’s judgments brought the residue to the feeling of his smallness (it is always so, morally, of the soul when God visits it in judgment, for what could man do in this position, if he wanted to remedy it?), it was, nevertheless, only part of the distress resulting from the wrath of God, for death and anger are the true burden envisaged in this Psalm, but here the terrors of God weigh on the soul. Nor is there, as a present thing, any trace of consolation, nor the prospect of deliverance from human oppression, however obscurely this deliverance could be maintained by faith. The Psalm ends in distress; everything happens there with God: this is how one must deal with Him until grace is known. Israel, placed under the law, must come to the feeling that divine wrath is upon it because of the law it has broken: it is right that it should be so. But the God whose wrath weighs on them is a God with whom they are in relationship. They have been delivered, brought back, they are in the land closer to God; they have, as a result, the feeling that their condition of righteous affliction is in relation to this relationship. This is worth noting, either for Israel or for ourselves; for one can really know in a general way a God of deliverance, without the conscience being truly probed, the divine wrath being known in the consciousness, and the latter being delivered from it.
It should be noted that, even as to what makes the direct subject of the Psalm, terrors have not always been on the afflicted; he had been afflicted and exhaling from his youth; such had been his life; But now he felt his soul rejected, and the friends and companions he had had before had been removed from him by the hand of God. So it was with Christ: his disciples could not then persevere with him in his temptations; he bore witness to them that they had done so until then (Luke 22:28); but now they were going to be riddled like wheat (Luke 22:31), and the part of the best of them was going to be to abandon it or deny it. This was the lot of our Savior, differing only in this from the faithful, that not spared or delivered, he really stumbled upon the cup that will make them escape the death they fear. This can be applied to them as an urgent lesson, so that they may know justice and deliverance; but, as for the cup of anger, they will not drink it; they will be answered and delivered to earth. This Psalm therefore presents us with anger under the law; in Ps. 89 we find mercy and favor in Christ, but as the object of their expectation in the promise; the present deliverance will come in the next book, through the definitive introduction of Jehovah, the Messiah, for the rest of the world and of Israel.
Eternal, God of my salvation! Let me ask you in particular to note that although the prophet simply and without hyperbole recites the agony he suffered from the greatness of his sorrows, but at the same time, to provide the afflicted with a form of prayer so that they do not faint under adversities, however serious, that may happen to them. We will hear him gradually burst into vehement complaints because of the pain of his calamities; but he strengthens himself seasonally by this brief exorde, lest he become responsible for complaining and whispering against God, lest he becomes responsible for humbly asking him for forgiveness. For en applying to him the name ofthe God of his salvation, throwing himself, so to speak, a bridle on himself, he holds back the excess of his sorrow, closes the door against despair, strengthens himself and prepares himself for the endurance of the cross.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
My life touches on the sojourn of the dead:
- Imploring God
Ex 2:23 Long after, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel were still groaning under bondage, and screaming. These cries, snatched from them by servitude, ascended to God. Ps 34:6 When one looks to him, one is radiant with joy, and the face is not covered with shame. Ps 61:2 O God! listen to my cries, Be attentive to my prayer! Lm 2:18 Their hearts cry out to the Lord… Wall of the daughter of Zion, pour out torrents of tears day and night! Do not give you any relaxation, and let your eye have no rest!
- Mortality, general references
Ps 89:49 Is there a man who can live and not see death, Who can save his soul from the sojourn of the dead? Break. Ec 3:20 Everything goes in one place; everything has been made of dust, and everything returns to dust. 2 Cor 4:7 We carry this treasure in earthen vessels, so that this great power may be attributed to God, not to us. 2 Cor 5:4 For while we are in this tent, we groan, overwhelmed, because we want, not to strip ourselves, but to put on ourselves, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
- Human weakness manifested by all men
Nb 11:14 I cannot, on my own, carry all this people, for it is too heavy for me. Mt 26:40 And he came to the disciples, whom he found asleep, and said to Peter, “So you could not watch an hour with me! Jn 16:12 I still have a lot to tell you, but you can’t wear them now. 1 Cor 3:2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you could not bear it; and you cannot even now, because you are still carnal.
- Faithfulness of God
Dt 7:9 But because Jehovah loves you, because He wanted to keep the oath He had made to your fathers, Jehovah brought you out by His mighty hand, delivered you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. 1 Kings 8:56 Blessed be the Lord, who gave rest to his people of Israel, according to all his promises! Of all the good words he had spoken by Moses, his servant, none went without effect. Ps 36:6 Eternal, your goodness reaches to heaven, Your faithfulness to the clouds. Ps 89:2 I will always sing the goodness of the Lord; My mouth will make your faithfulness known forever.
From all the above, we note “Lord, God of my salvation!” is the beginning of this Psalm, which gives it its scope and true character, and makes it all the more terrible! It is possible that the full blessing of freedom in grace is not known, but the relationship with the God of salvation is sufficiently known; he is well known himself; one is sufficiently aware of dealing with him, that the deprivation of his favor and the feeling of his anger are the most terrible thing, the awful thing above all. The position of the Jews, under the law, the circumstances in which they find themselves, and God’s government toward them, may relate more to what we find here, because their relationship with Jehovah relates precisely to these things. Yet it is the burning wrath of Jehovah that is the great and terrible burden; the subject of this Psalm is precisely this terror of the Almighty, or, more precisely, of the Lord, which absorbs and confuses the spirit – the feeling of anger, which will have, on that day, the residue, under a law that he has broken! The pains had visited him before; he had been afflicted and close to giving up his soul from his youth, for this had indeed been his portion, as if driven away from Jerusalem, and now restored. Being thus put in relation with Jehovah, the God of his salvation, he must feel the full depth of his moral position, between Jehovah and him alone, under the wrath he has deserved. Unless you go through this, you cannot be truly healed, you cannot enter into the blessing. This does not mean, of course, that anger must remain on the faithful; that is why there is faith, trust in this Psalm, although there is no consolation in it. For it is after mercy has been shown to them, and has been known to them, that this distress comes upon the faithful; it is when they have entered into their relationship with God through this mercy that they can feel its value, in the same way as Job who, already blessed, then learned to know himself and to see what man he was, as having to do himself to God, when the question of acceptance and justice was raised. Anger will not dwell on the faithful, because Christ drank the cup; but they must enter into the intelligence of this anger, as placed under the law, for they had been under the law and had had the pretension to come to justice through it; until then, however, this issue had not been resolved for them. Needlessto say, how Christ really entered into all this in the last period of his life: this is the capital fact of his history. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and for centuries of ages. Amen!
I would be happy to react to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow ” Complaints and Hopes of the Oppressed Faithful (Ps 102).”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.