While preparing a Sunday School lesson touching on an
introduction to the Psalms, I ran
across a piece of miscellaneous trivia that I passed along as such to the
class: "Psalm 88 is the only
psalm that ends without some sense of praise or hope in God." Of course, I
knew I would have to look into that. I am familiar with the sorrowful language
voiced throughout the psalms, but for the most part, the sufferer comes around
near the end, as if expecting some answer or relief.
That is not the case for the pitiful soul behind Psalm 88. His hope in God is implied,
but he never articulates a request for deliverance. Has he grown so accustomed
to his lot in life that he feels it is no longer appropriate to keep on requesting
a turnaround? He is certainly not claiming or demanding any such thing, a
notion peddled by so many Gospel hucksters today.
In the ascription, the song is attributed to Heman and to the Sons of Korah, the former probably a member of the latter. There is
no back story and no clue as to where or when this psalm was written. The only
thing that is obvious is one man's distress.
It is often speculated that this is the psalm of someone in
the throes of a disease, specifically, leprosy. The theory is not without merit
as the word "Mahalath" in
the ascription bears a similarity to a Hebrew word for disease. The anguish of
the language certainly reflects what we might imagine a leper would experience.
- He is near to death. He is, in fact, counted among the dead already. He moves among others who are counted as dead (in the realm of Sheol) (vss. 3-5).
- He is shunned by his companions (vs. 8).
- His sight is failing. (The delicate tissue of a leper's eyelids would deteriorate, rendering him susceptible to maladies of the eye, even blindness (vs.9)
- To plea for healing would be to ask for his own special miracle, unprecedented in the greater community of lepers (vs. 10).
Of course, the greater questions are: "What is Psalm 88 doing in a hymnal?"
"What is the author expressing to God?" "What is the psalm's teaching
value for God's people?"
The most positive phrase in the psalm appears in the first
verse: "O LORD, God of my salvation ..."
but the meaning of even that stanza is unclear. Is the psalmist speaking of a
present and spiritual salvation that he perceives he already possesses? Or, is
he speaking of a potential deliverance from what is currently afflicting him?
What is clear is that YAHWEH
is this man's only hope? As he attributes his suffering to the hand of the LORD, one might conclude that he is lashing out
at or even blaming God. I think it is more reasonable to conclude that he is
simply acknowledging God's sovereign activity, or, in this case, His sovereign
inactivity. A handful of older writers speculated that Job is the author if
this psalm. While there is no shred of evidence to support this idea, I can
concede that it is difficult to conceive of a second man who is bearing his
intense suffering with such acceptance.
I can think of few things so detrimental to securing
commitments to authentic discipleship as the unwillingness of many believers to
acknowledge the place of suffering in the Christian experience. How many times
have trite clichés and empty promises, foolishly attributed to God, caused only
shipwrecked faith in others when they did not come to pass. If we constantly
present to the world the notion that faith in God must expect some remarkable,
short-term pay-off that only applies to this temporal realm, then, we are
undermining the essential message that people must be reconciled to God simply
because they are sinners and He is holy.
I wish I could bring some satisfactory closure to all the
curiosity that is piqued by this psalm, but no one ever has. What does seem
clear is that this is a man who remains steadfast in believing there is nowhere
else to go. If there is to be any deliverance from this malady, it must come
from God. And, even if God does not deliver him from this temporal affliction,
He is still too good, too wise, too sovereign, too omniscient, too glorious,
too faithful ... too God ... to be abandoned. Where else could this suffering
soul turn?
Even though this man is almost certainly not Job, one cannot
help but to think of the tenacity of that precious ancient soul:
"Though he slay
me, I will hope in him;
yet I will argue my ways to his
face. - Job 13:15
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