The Bible is an honest book, the most honest book in the world.We ought to be honest people; but we must also understand that our task is not to tell others about ourselves but to point them to God. Doing that often involves telling things that we have not yet learned as we ought to have learned them. We are to hold up God’s ideals, not just our realities.
Psalm 88 is a painfully honest passage. It gives us a glimpse into a place where we might prefer not to look. In this psalm we are shown the heart of a believer who has given up hope. He does not expect deliverance. He does not expect to be saved from death; and he does not seem to expect communion with God beyond death (5, 10). He has given up hope; but he has not given up faith. He still believes in God. He still cries out to God, although he feels no sense of hope.
This psalm calls us to ask a terrible question. Would our faith abide alone? Could we go on believing amid hopelessness, in a situation where we enjoyed no loving contact and had ceased to believe that we were loved?
Psalm 88 addresses the same question the book of Job addresses. Will a man serve God for no reason, or must he always be looking for something to gain? (Job 1:9)Or to put it more personally, “Would we serve God just because it is right, or must we always be looking toward a reward?”
This psalm seems to show us that there was at least one person who did so. He continued to go to God even when he despaired of hearing a positive response.That does not tell us what we would do in similar circumstances. Let us hope that we never have to find out.
Leaving that question, which we hope will never become a practical question for us, let us turn to some matters to which this psalm speaks.
It can happen
Prolonged, unexplained suffering is a possibility for believers. Despair is not a right response, but it is a possible response. And it is not one that should always be condemned.
Sometimes it should be condemned. Those who despair over spilled milk need to be told to straighten up.But it is not fair to say to those feeling despair over prolonged and unexplained suffering that they lack faith. It is possible to lack hope without lacking faith.
Tell the truth
Honesty with God is acceptable. We should tell him the truth.This psalm plainly shows that.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. 8 You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape; 9 my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you. (7-9)
Job, Elijah, Jeremiah and Habakkuk are all very honest with God. They are rebuked at times, But they are never condemned for their honesty. Often, they are not even rebuked when they are in despair. Despair may be a wrong response, but it is not one often helped by rebuke.
There is nothing in the New Testament that parallels this psalm. This may be partly because, by New Testament times, the idea of life beyond death was much clearer. So, even when there was no hope in sight, there is always hope beyond the grave for the believer who knows that Jesus is risen.But in the Old Testament we see several passages in Job, Jeremiah, Lamentations and Habakkuk that come close to this level of despair.
Is it possible to pray in faith when praying without hope? This psalm says that it is possible.Would we do it? That is another question. Perhaps we should close right here, with that unanswered question.
But, instead, let us close with a passage that starts out like Psalm 88, but ends on a different note. Instead of ending with “darkness” (18), as this psalm does, this other passage ends with a clear note of hope.
The different note may not always come. Some Christian somewhere might die in despair. But often the prayer begun without hope develops hope along the way. The one who has faith enough to pray in his hopelessness, often learns to hope again. But while we have hope, let us acknowledge that we have moments of hopelessness. Let us realise that we are not to be harsh with those experiencing such a time.
Lamentations 3:1-24
1 I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light;
3 surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long.
4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones;
5 he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
6 he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.
7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;
8 though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;
9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.
10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;
11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;
12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.
13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;
14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long.
15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.
16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes;
17 my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is;
18 so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.”
19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”