JOURNAL ~ PsalmsНамуна

NOTHING BUT DARKNESS - Day 5

Today we want to finish our reflection on Psalm 88 by again focusing on Heman. Like a glass brimming with water, his soul overflows with trouble. He might as well be dead, for his life seems hardly worth living. Again, he laments: "You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them." (v. 8a). Perhaps it was a disease or some kind of affliction that made his physical appearance repulsive to the eye. Perhaps Heman's trials finally became more than his friends were willing to bear, so they left him to his misery. It's not a pretty sight. Herman is persistent in his prayers, but his patience is wearing thin.

Like a lot of us, Heman can't help but interpret his distress as a sign that perhaps God has abandoned him. I'm not at all suggesting that Heman's experience is normative. There is joy in Jesus. There is deliverance in the grace, hope and mercy that comes from our Father. Still, we should not write him off because his experience is not as uncommon as we might think. There are people all around us who know and feel all too well the sorrows of Herman. They are not surprised by Psalm 88. They read it and nod with understanding. Like Herman, darkness is their closest friend.

If Heman and other Psalmists show us anything, it is brutal honesty. The Psalmists candidly declare their distress, sorrow, loneliness, affliction, grief, mourning, fear, and dismay. They don't hesitate to confess that they are consumed by anguish, weak with sorrow, worn out from groaning, bowed down and brought low, feeble and completely crushed, troubled by sin, downcast, overcome by trouble, and in desperate need. But the last thing we should think, upon reading Psalm 88, is that our situation is hopeless. Although Heman never said it, I believe he knew, and I pray we also would know, that The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love. (Ps. 33:18).