Psalm 88 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Psalm 88 Short Summary:

Psalm 88 is a sad psalm. Written by Heman the Ezrahite, Psalm 88 is a cry to the Lord for help with a prolonged period of sadness and suffering. The psalmist felt abandoned, both by the Lord and his friends, and He desperately wanted to know from God how long his misery would last.

Psalm 88 Summary

AUTHOR:

• Psalm 88 was written by Heman the Ezrahite.

NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES:

• No Known New Testament References.

THEMES:

• Sadness and struggle through times of trial.

• Wrestling with the idea of God allowing people to go through periods of struggle.

DEFINITIONS:

• Sheol (88:3) – The place of the dead, where the souls of the deceased are gathered.

• Abaddon (88:3) – Abaddon is the Hebrew word meaning destruction, abyss, or place of destruction.

OUTLINE:

• WHY DO YOU HIDE YOUR FACE FROM ME? (88:14):

  • This is one of the saddest, if not the saddest psalm in the collection.

  • The sadness of this psalm carries through all the way to the end, unlike some of David’s psalms which always ended with expressions of hope.

  • Heman wrote that he cried to the Lord day and night because his soul was full of troubles and he felt like death was creeping up on him.

  • He had no strength and felt like God didn’t care about him anymore. He describes God’s wrath overwhelming him like waves.

  • He felt it was God’s doing that his friends no longer liked him.

  • Heman didn’t see why God would let him die. If God saved him in life, other people would be able to see God’s work and love, and Heman would have an occasion to worship. If Heman’s deliverance was only to come through death, no one would get the chance to observe God’s goodness and glorify Him for it.

  • “O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?” (88:14).

  • The psalm ends with a repetition of Heman’s troubles. He was surrounded by dreadful assaults, terrors afflicted him, his friends had abandoned him, and he couldn’t help but think God was allowing all of it.

APPLICATION:

• Why would God include this psalm in His Bible?

• These kinds of sentiments often stir up discussions about God’s existence, and how suffering can exist if a good God exists.

• The psalmist didn’t understand why he was suffering, but He knew God had the power to stop his suffering if He wanted to… So, why didn’t a loving God get rid of the suffering?

• To explore the many layers surrounding the “problem of suffering” would take us much more than 5 minutes, but what we can learn from this psalm is that God isn’t afraid of people asking those questions.

• They are not a threat to His existence. They will not prove His nature is inconsistent with His creation.

• God has His reasons for permitting suffering to exists, and maybe a psalm like this is permitted into His Bible to get us to think about what those reasons might be. It leads our minds to start thinking about important questions.

• In a world so full of fluff, entertainment, and surface level thinking, we need passages like these to center our minds on profound questions and to kickstart deeper thinking.