Read Psalm 88 at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraph divisions are marked within the structure:
1a) Psa 88:1-6, The psalmist cries out to God in anguish of soul + despair of life:
1) Psa 88:1-2, The psalmist cries out in prayer:
Psa 88:1, O Lord, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before You;
Psa 88:2, Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry;
2) Psa 88:3, For my soul is full of troubles, And my life draws near to the grave;
3) Psa 88:4-6, The psalmist forgotten like one dead:
1a) Psa 88:4, I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man who has no strength;
1b) Psa 88:5a, Set apart among the dead; {n}
central axis) Psa 88:5b, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom You remember no more; {n}
2b) Psa 88:5c, And who are cut off from Your hand;
2a) Psa 88:6, You have laid me in the lowest pit, In darkness, in the depths;
1b) Psa 88:7-8a, The waves of God’s wrath + loss of friends:
1) Psa 88:7, Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves; Selah
2) Psa 88:8a, You have put away my acquaintances far from me; You have made me an abomination to them;
central axis) Psa 88:8b, I am shut up, and I cannot get out;
2a) Psa 88:9-15a, The psalmist’s affliction of soul + his prayer + contemplation of the dead:
1a) Psa 88:9a, My eye wastes away because of affliction; {n}
1b) Psa 88:9b, Lord, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You;
central axis) Psa 88:10-12, God forgotten among the dead:
Psa 88:10, Will You work wonders for the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise You? Selah
Psa 88:11, Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in the place of destruction?
Psa 88:12, Shall Your wonders be known in the dark? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
2b) Psa 88:13, But to You I have cried out, O Lord, and in the morning my prayer comes before You;
2a) Psa 88:14-15a, Lord, why do You cast off my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me? I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth;
2b) Psa 88:15b-18, God’s wrath + loss of loved ones and friends:
1) Psa 88:15b-17, Engulfed in God’s wrath like waters:
Psa 88:15b, I suffer Your terrors; I am distraught;
Psa 88:16, Your fierce wrath has gone over me; Your terrors have cut me off;
Psa 88:17, They came around me all day long like water; They engulfed me altogether;
2) Psa 88:18, Loved one and friend You have put far from me, and my acquaintances into darkness. {p}
Some interesting notes about this psalm. In the A pair, the 3 elements of the pair remain the same: the prayer + the anguish + the contemplation of the dead; but in the 1a pair they are listed in a progression, while in the 2a pair they are arranged in their own chiastic structure. In the 1A pair, it is God who remembers the dead no more, and in the 2A pair, it is the dead who remember God no more.
I have been meditating on the central axis, “I am shut up, I cannot get out.” This is not your normal happy psalm, but it fills one with dread and foreboding. You hear, sometimes, foolish young people joke about going to hell, as if all the sin and living for their flesh they are doing today will continue there like a giant party. On the contrary, whatever reward they are receiving today for the indulgences of the flesh is all the reward they ever will receive. It is a terrible thing to experience the wrath of God, to be forgotten in the grave, to be abandoned by all you hold dear, to be shut up with no avenue of escape. Unfortunately, those who do not repent will have eternity to contemplate on the foolishness of their words, and how fleeting and deceptive was their reward (for the reward of sin is no reward at all, but painful consequences).
Wrath never comes without a cause of sin. Repent of sin, turn from it, and humble yourself before the mighty hand of God, trusting in the substitutionary death of Messiah Yeshua on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, and God will raise you up with His mighty hand instead. ♥
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