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Psalm 88:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 88:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 88[a]
Prayer in Affliction
1 A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah.[b] For the director. According to Mahalath. For singing. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
2 [c]O Lord, the God of my salvation,
day and night I cry out to you.
3 Let my prayer come before you;
give ear to my cry for help.
Footnotes
- Psalm 88:1 The anguish of death has rarely found expression in such touching images as those of the present psalm: prison, shipwreck, solitude, and darkness. The suppliant has experienced the depths of misfortune. Has God abandoned him? Despite the depths of his distress, the believer refuses to admit such a thing; he puts down all thought of rebellion within himself. For although no expressions of hopeful expectation (as in most psalms) are present and the last word speaks of darkness as “my closest friend,” the psalmist firmly believes that the Lord is “the God of [his] salvation.”
This psalm illustrates the hazy ideas that the ancients harbored about life after death before they arrived at faith in the resurrection: in the netherworld (“Sheol”), in the subterranean pit, the dead have no more communication with God; they are no more than dull shadows of themselves in the land of no recall. It is a prayer of a man who experiences the depths of human misery, a prayer of Israel at the edge of collapse, but also a prayer of everyone on the brink of hopelessness.
This psalm furnishes Christians with a prayer during times of spiritual dryness as well as human calamities of all kinds. We can then express to the heavenly Father our sufferings and distresses in the face of hostility, the weight of our spiritual and human solitude, and our fear in the light of his persistent silence. It will enable us to accept our cup without recrimination and to renew our trust in our God. - Psalm 88:1 Sons of Korah: see note on Ps 42:1. For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation. According to Mahalath: possibly a tune. Maskil: see note on Ps 32:1a. Heman the Ezrahite: he is thought to be the son of Zerah (hence, Ezrahite) and member of the tribe of Judah (see 1 Chr 2:6) as well as leader of the Korahite guild (see 1 Chr 6:33, 37).
- Psalm 88:2 The psalmist, despite his wretched state, has not lost hope; he believes that the Lord is the God who saves and so he cries out to him for help.
