Why

O God, I need You every day that I exist and every night that I pass through. Never turn Your face from me, O Lord, for my life is a continuous plea for help. My life is one long series of conflicts and defeats, and they only increase as I near its end. My ultimate destiny is a hole in the ground, but I am as good as dead even now. Without strength, forsaken, and shunned by those around me, I feel as if I were separated forever from You. I am assailed by afflictions, attacked by obsessions, and all but forgotten by God and human beings. And yet I continue to cry out to You. Even while the assaults of this life and the fear of death surround me and close in on me, I look to You for some ray of hope. Good Lord, where are You? Is there nothing within me worth saving? Psalm 88 (Brandt, Leslie F. Psalms Now . Concordia Publishing House. Kindle Edition. )

No matter how we feel and how impossible our circumstances are, we can always come to the Lord with our burdens. When discouraged or depressed, some people like to surround themselves with others. Other people handle those same emotions differently, preferring to be alone with their thoughts. There is not an exclusive answer that applies to every circumstance. However, we know that God uses activity and silence to teach us to experience His presence more deeply. We will see in Psalm 88 that even when God seems silent, He is always present, and we are called to put our hope in Him. 

The late pastor and Bible commentator James Montgomery Boice said, "It is good that we have a psalm like this, but it is also good that we have just one" The psalm speaks of darkness (vs. 1, 6, 12, 18), life in the depths (Vv. 3–4, 6), the certainty of death (Vv. 5, 10–11), feelings of drowning (Vv. 7, 16–17), loneliness (Vv. 5, 8, 14, 18), and imprisonment (v. 8). 

The author of this psalm, Heman, loves the Lord. Heman was a worship leader in Israel, appointed by King David. Heman's responsibilities included training and directing a choir of 250-280 musicians who provided their gifts and service to the temple. Heman is not running from God; he's running to God. He's not backing away. If anything, he's in God's face. The Psalm opens up when a recurring refrain—in verses 1, 9, and 13—" I cry out" or "I call to you."

Psalm 88 isn't a license to accuse, fuss or be bitter towards God. Nevertheless, there is much to learn from Heman. He is struggling with the tension between what he knows and feels. How many times have we done this very thing? He expresses what he knows in the psalm's first five words: "Lord, God of my salvation." That's the cleanest theology in the whole passage. But his feelings and emotions don't believe it during this moment. Basically, "I know you are the God of my salvation, but my mood tells me there won't be any saving today."Heman is desperate, coming to the source of his worship to plea. 

We are not aware of what this affliction was that came to him as possibly a child, but it is painful to think that he suffered all his life and all day (Vv. 15, 17). He could not recall a time when he enjoyed good health.

The waters were rising, and he could fill himself drowning (see 130:1), and there was nobody near enough to rescue him. He was alone! The darkness was his friend because it hid him from the eyes of those who observed his sufferings and may have said (as did Job's friends), "He must have sinned greatly for the Lord to afflict him so much!" But he continued to pray and to look to God for help! 

What do you do in your moment of darkness? How do you present your pain in the presence of God? How can one genuinely worship when they have lost a child? When depression grabs your headspace with both hands to get your attention in the morning, and yet you don't have the desire to get up and get dressed? How do you worship when the enemy of your burdens reminds you of things you keep trying to forget?

If our Christian faith doesn't speak to these places, the complex realities of our world, then we shouldn't be surprised when the world says, "No thanks" to wanting to learn more about Christ and His Love. As a local church, we can't just share good truths to hurting people. Why? Because on any given Sunday, yes, even this Sunday, there are people in that pews who are struggling to hang on, and if our worship pretends everything is super and we are fine, it's painting an untrue picture of reality. When we do this, even this Sunday, we leave struggling brothers and sisters with no resources to help and assist them to endure. The truth of Psalm 88 is that God gives his people hope in the darkness of moments and night. 

Thank God that He is always present regardless of how we feel or what we face. Invite Him to help you always put your hope in Him and continue to praise Him.