The Song Of The Uncomforted
Psalms 88
November 8, 2020
Tonight we come upon what may be
The darkest Psalm in the entire book of Psalms.
It begins with the only positive statement in the entire Psalm.
(1) “O LORD, the God of my salvation,”
And it DESCENDS from there.
It is a Psalm which will give no relief.
We often times find our Psalmist in pain or turmoil or fear
But it seems like there is always a ray of sunshine somewhere.
For example,
• The writer may speak of his affliction but somewhere in the Psalm we read of the relief or the peace of God he receives.
• Or perhaps the Psalmist may lament his extreme pain, but we are accustomed to then reading, “Nevertheless I will hope in You…”
This Psalm gives us none of that.
• No relief is offered in this Psalm…
• No explanation is given in this Psalm…
• No consolation is given in this Psalm…
• It ends dark.
• It feels unresolved.
And while it does not produce a great emotional joy boost
In a person when they read it,
We should all be extremely grateful for a Psalm like this.
It is a song for those who are UNCOMFORTED.
It is a song for those who are NOT CONSOLED.
It is a song for those who SING IN THE DARKNESS.
You might call this the Ecclesiastes of all the Psalms.
• “Everything is meaningless…”
• “What’s the point?”
You’ve heard the old man tell that young man
To take of his rose colored glasses and take a dose of reality.
You’ve heard that old man tell that young man to quit watching the Hallmark channel and start watching Fox news where everything is wrong.
That book just comes with a realness that can be difficult to swallow
But must which must be understood.
This Psalm is like that.
It is harsh and dark and unresolved.
Apart from calling God “the God of my salvation”
There is nothing else positive in it.
And you may ask how such a song can be glorifying to God?
How can singing a song where no victory is claimed and no peace is given be seen as glorifying to God?
• Because even at this dark moment…
• Even when pain is intense…
• Even when answers aren’t present…
The Psalmist is still singing…
The Psalmist is still crying out…
In short, there is pain and confusion and even some frustration,
BUT THERE IS NOT A DEPARTURE.
Let me read again to you A FAMILIAR PARABLE.
Luke 18:1-8 “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
We like that parable because it fast-forwards to the end.
• We like the story because before it leaves, we actually see the widow granted
the protection she seeks.
But how many days and how many nights
Did she endure rejection before she received her relief?
How many times did she have to get up off the floor and approach again?
We firmly believe that
• All things work together for good for those who love God.
• God will bring about justice for His elect.
But you certainly know it’s not always immediate.
• Sometimes you go to bed in pain…
• Sometimes you go to be in turmoil…
• Sometimes you go to be without comfort…
In those time the importance is
That you CONTINUE TO SING and that you CONTINUE TO PRAY.
This Psalm is harsh, but it is honest.
• He is not manipulating God.
• He is not trying some gimmick to make God answer.
• He is just here again, for the umpteenth time, crying for justice from God.
So far he hasn’t gotten it,
But the fact that he keeps asking is evidence of his faith.
Now certainly I DON’T WANT all my songs to be like this.
I like the silver lining.
But I am glad to know that on the day when my spirit is not consoled
That there is still a song that God has preserved for me to sing.
So on the day you are not comforted, sing the 88th.
There is ONE OTHER important note to gain as we work our way through
As you read it, there are A COUPLE OF PASSAGES
That I want to just sort of put in the back of your mind.
Isaiah 53:3-4 “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.”
Our Savior was familiar with grief.
Our Savior was familiar with pain.
Our Savior even knew what it felt like to be forsaken.
Psalms 22:1-2 “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest.”
And there is a two-way street there.
ONE SIDE: Christ came and suffered such grief and rejection so that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest.
He was afflicted and He was rejected
Partly so He could know what it was like to be human.
THE OTHER SIDE to that street is since He suffered in this way, now there is a fellowship to be gained when you suffer like this.
Philippians 3:10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;”
On the day you suffer without comfort…
On the day it feels like you’ve been forsaken of God…
On that day, fellowship with Christ for that was His pain also.
There is a fellowship to be gained there.
Christ didn’t just write this Psalm, He lived it; He sang it.
There is comfort there for us.
So let’s work our way through this Psalm of the uncomforted.
3 main points.
#1 HIS COMPLAINT
Psalms 88:1-9
As we said, the first line of verse 1
Offers the ONLY POSITIVE FEEL in the entire Psalm.
“O LORD, the God of my salvation”
It is important to note that the Psalmists loyalty and worship
Did not consist purely on what God might do,
But on what God had done.
We must always keep the perspective that
If God has clothed us in the righteousness of His Son
And atoned for our sin with the blood of His Son
Then regardless of the pain God allows we are in the positive.
Job said:
Job 13:15 “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.”
When Job’s wife wanted him to curse God and die, he said:
Job 2:10 “But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”
We’ll read several statements of Job in this Psalm,
You know that at times JOB was very FRUSTRATED and very CONFUSED.
But one thing was NEVER on the table.
• Regardless of the silence…
• Regardless of the pain…
• Regardless of the confusion…
JOB WASN’T GOING ANYWHERE.
Job 19:23-27 “Job Says, “My Redeemer Lives” “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! “That with an iron stylus and lead They were engraved in the rock forever! “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!”
Job was in great pain and confusion but he said, “Write it down in the rock with an iron pen…My Redeemer Lives!”
All of that is bound up here in the opening line of Psalms 88.
The Psalmist knows who he is calling upon.
And yet, the mood is one of frustration and complaint.
“I have cried out by day and in the night before You. Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry!”
God is the God of his salvation, but for the moment He is distant at best.
From the Psalmist’s perspective
God has put him on hold and won’t pick up the phone.
And that leads to the complaint.
And you’ll see why.
THE SEVEREITY (3-5)
(3-5) “For my soul has had enough troubles, And my life has drawn near to Sheol. I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength, Forsaken among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more, And they are cut off from Your hand.”
You can hear him here lament the severity of his trial.
“my soul has had enough troubles”
• In other words he is crying “Uncle”
• Enough is enough!
• Point received!
In his mind this should have stopped by now.
“And my life has drawn near to Sheol. I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength.”
• He says, people say he’s as good as dead.
• It’s like I’ve got one foot in the grave.
• He is on spiritual hospice.
I’m at the end here God!
And here I am at the end and I still can’t get Your attention.
(5) “Forsaken among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more, And they are cut off from Your hand.”
That is NOT a theological point, but rather a practical one.
Dead people are cut off from earthly relationships.
And this is the Psalmist complaint.
“Here I am, about to die, and You’re ignoring me like I’m already dead.”
It’s like I’m a wounded patient who is beyond saving
So You’ve moved on to the next wounded man.
It is a hard place to be.
That’s one complaint – The Severity
Severity
THE SOURCE (6-8)
(6-8) “You have put me in the lowest pit, In dark places, in the depths. Your wrath has rested upon me, And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah. You have removed my acquaintances far from me; You have made me an object of loathing to them; I am shut up and cannot go out.”
I’m suffering terribly and it is YOU who put Me here.
How can one not see the suffering of Christ in verse 7?
verse 7, “Your wrath has rested upon me, And You have afflicted me with all Your waves”
• It is undeserved affliction.
• And not only is God afflicting him, but God has removed any and all comforters
from Him.
This too was so true of Christ.
As He died upon the cross,
His followers had fled, one had betrayed, one had denied,
Gathered around the cross was a multitude of mockers enjoying His death
But it has also been true of the saints throughout the generations.
• We see Joseph alone in a prison waiting there 2 years AFTER the cupbearer was supposed to speak on his behalf.
• We see Jeremiah alone being lowered into a well because his message was so hated.
• Certainly Job had people around him, but none of them were friends.
AND ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE WERE IN THAT SITUATION
BECAUSE GOD PUT THEM THERE.
Later in life Joseph even said, “It was not you who sent me here but God”
Jeremiah complained at God saying “You have deceived me and I was deceived”
Even at the end of his life, suffering in the Mamertine prison Paul wrote:
2 Timothy 4:16 “At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them.”
Paul also suffering there because of the gospel.
The suffering was severe and the sovereign God was the source.
That is the Psalmist.
He is complaining because of the severity of his suffering
And because God has caused it without offering any comfort whatsoever.
Severity – Source
THE SILENCE (9)
“My eye has wasted away because of affliction; I have called upon You every day, O LORD; I have spread out my hands to You.”
And despite all this, You still won’t answer.
Job 30:20-23 “I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You turn Your attention against me. “You have become cruel to me; With the might of Your hand You persecute me. “You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride; And You dissolve me in a storm. “For I know that You will bring me to death And to the house of meeting for all living.”
It is a hard place to be.
And the Psalmist is complaining about it.
But find fellowship in knowing that Christ has been there too.
Hebrews 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
Christ embraced human life and Christ endured human death.
There is fellowship in His sufferings and there is sympathy in His heart.
But the Psalmist isn’t feeling it.
There is only the complaint.
#2 HIS CASE
Psalms 88:10-12
Here the Psalmist appeals to logic
And how it doesn’t make sense
For God to be responding the way He is.
Boy, welcome to human suffering 101,
When God doesn’t respond in a way that seems logical to you.
Many times in our hardship, when we think we clearly see what would be best in a situation, we are slammed against the rock of Isaiah 55.
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
We are often forced in our suffering to not only endure pain,
But also endure the shattering of our logical sense of what is right.
But that hasn’t stopped the Psalmist from giving HIS LOGICAL APPEAL.
It is his case as to why God
Should stop ignoring him and come deliver him.
It is framed in 5 questions.
• “Will You perform wonders for the dead?”
• “Will the departed spirits rise and praise You? Selah.”
• “Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave, Your faithfulness in
Abaddon?
• “Will Your wonders be made known in the darkness?
• And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Now, from the Psalmists perspectives and by his logic
The answer to every one of those questions is “NO”.
He is approaching this with a TEMPORAL MINDSET in his questioning.
And HIS POINT is that once death occurs
A person offers no benefit to God on the earth.
• It does no good to provide money for the electric bill for a dead man.
• The dead man will not testify of such a provision or praise God for it.
• The dead man will not go and tell other dead men about what God did.
• The dead man will not shout praises in the casket.
• The dead man will not preach the gospel of righteousness in the grave.
And so the logic of the Psalmist is:
“What good am I to You dead?”
• It just doesn’t make any sense that You would let me die since there is no
benefit in it for You.
• I can do much more for you as a living man that as a dead man.
THAT IS HIS LOGIC.
And you’ve likely applied that very logic
At times in your life and in your suffering.
• A young person tragically dies too soon and someone says “what a waste”.
• Lamented is how much that life could have accomplished but now that death has occurred it can’t accomplish anything.
That is the Psalmist’s logic.
I do think it is also worth noting then that BY DEFAULT
The Psalmist declares to us what is THE PURPOSE OF LIFE.
• It is that God might perform wonders and be praised accordingly with our life.
• It is that God’s lovingkindness might be declared.
• It is that God’s faithfulness might be declared.
• It is that God’s wonders might be declared.
• It is that god’s righteousness might be declared.
The Psalmist clearly sees those things as the obligations of life
And so he is arguing with God
That letting him die doesn’t make any sense.
And we can understand that.
However, we SHOULD ALSO POINT OUT that while the answer to all of the Psalmists questions are “NO”.
If you apply those same questions to Christ then they all become “YES”.
Did God perform wonders for the dead with Christ?
Yes God raised Him.
Did the departed spirits rise and praise Him?
Yes Jesus clearly testified of the Father after He rose.
Was God’s lovingkindness or faithfulness or wonders or righteousness declared in the grave?
Yes
1 Peter 3:18-20 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”
And the obvious point there is that our logic fails
Because we don’t know what God knows.
In our mind God should always respond to our suffering a certain way
Because in our limited understanding it makes the most sense.
But God knows what we do not.
Consider the Lazarus story.
By the time Jesus showed up to Bethany the sisters and all their friends were just like this Psalmist.
They were filled with complaints about severity and silence.
John 11:21 “Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
John 11:32 “Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
John 11:37 “But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”
But that is because Jesus knew what they did not.
John 11:4 “But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
It is just an important reminder that our logic is flawed.
We don’t have all the facts.
The death of Jesus looked like a real low point in human history until 3 days later when He stepped out of the grave.
I’ve told people repeatedly that
We are not supposed to know everything right now.
Right now we are supposed to have faith.
Someday in the future when we know fully
Then we will see why God was so right in what He did.
But the simple point is that we have a Psalmist here complaining to God
Because God is not doing what seems logically right.
His Complaint, His Case
#3 HIS CONFUSION
Psalms 88:13-18
And since God has not done what is logical
The Psalmist is just going to spell out what doesn’t make sense here.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS (13-14)
(13-14) “But I, O LORD, have cried out to You for help, And in the morning my prayer comes before You. O LORD, why do You reject my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?”
I have prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed …BUT NOTHING.
It doesn’t make sense that You would ignore me.
Job 23:8-9 “Behold, I go forward but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.”
I still remember reading the biography of Adrian Rogers written by his wife Joyce. In it she talked about the day they lost an infant child to SIDS. She mentions that the hardest thing she had to do was surrender the right to understand.
The Psalmist is fighting that battle right now.
Even Jesus on the cross said, “Why have You forsaken Me?”
It’s a real issue in our lives when we suffer.
UNYIELDING TERRORS (15-17)
(15-17) “I was afflicted and about to die from my youth on; I suffer Your terrors; I am overcome. Your burning anger has passed over me; Your terrors have destroyed me. They have surrounded me like water all day long; They have encompassed me altogether.”
There are some phrases there that are hard to swallow.
• “from my youth on”
• “all day long”
Let those sink in.
• This is NOT some “Johnny come lately” infirmity.
• This has been the infirmity of his life.
This is being born with a disease that makes life harder for you than anyone else and never being told why and never getting any relief.
It just never stops.
It never lets up.
How often we have spoken of our ability
To handle the shock of tragedy,
But it is the duration of tragedy that seems to really wear us down.
When it just won’t relent.
We have only the command of Scripture.
Proverbs 3:11-12 “My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD Or loathe His reproof, For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
And we have the promise of Scripture.
Hebrews 12:11 “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
God is making us a sharer of His holiness.
God is producing righteousness in us.
BUT IT IS HARD.
The Psalmist is also confused about:
UNAVAILABLE CONSOLATION (18)
(18) “You have removed lover and friend far from me; My acquaintances are in darkness.”
This seems extremely harsh and confusing.
Suffering and suffering alone.
• We already mentioned Christ being abandoned by His own.
• We mentioned Paul alone in prison.
• We mentioned Joseph and Jeremiah in their suffering.
• We still remember Job, who had friends but was still alone.
Job 16:1-2 “Then Job answered, “I have heard many such things; Sorry comforters are you all.”
Job 19:13-22 “He has removed my brothers far from me, And my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. “My relatives have failed, And my intimate friends have forgotten me. “Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I am a foreigner in their sight. “I call to my servant, but he does not answer; I have to implore him with my mouth. “My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers. “Even young children despise me; I rise up and they speak against me. “All my associates abhor me, And those I love have turned against me. “My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, And I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. “Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, For the hand of God has struck me. “Why do you persecute me as God does, And are not satisfied with my flesh?”
It is not just suffering, it is suffering alone.
AND WITH THAT THE PSALM ENDS.
There is no “Nevertheless”
There is no “But…”
We desperately want a verse 19 which says, “Then God answered me from the pit. He renewed His compassion for me, and raised me up.”
BUT IT’S NOT THERE.
Oh, make no mistake, IT WILL COME.
If not in this life then in the next.
But this Psalm isn’t about that day.
• This Psalm is about the 100’s of days before that day.
• This Psalm is the song of that widow 2 years before the judge granted her legal protection.
This is the song BEFORE the comfort comes.
I have told you how I love the imprecatory Psalms
• Because it gives me a place to go with my frustration.
• I can lay it at the feet of a righteous Judge and let it go.
This Psalm is like that regarding the frustration of our suffering.
• We sing this Psalm and also lay it at the feet of “the God of my salvation” and let it go.
We certainly don’t want to sing it every day,
But on that day it is great to have a song to sing.
