Show Don't Tell: Psalm 88

Instead of saying "The psalmist felt abandoned by God," sit in the darkness. A song of the Sons of Korah, a maskil of Heman the Ezrahite—the darkest psalm in the Psalter. "LORD, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry." He still cries out—but: "I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength. I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care." Among the dead while still living. "You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves." Not enemies—God himself doing this. "You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief." Friends gone, imprisoned, blind with tears. "I call to you, LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you. Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do those who are dead rise up and praise you?" The rhetorical questions of despair. "But I cry to you for help, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why, LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me?" No answer given. The final line: "You have taken from me friend and neighbor—darkness is my closest friend." The psalm ends in darkness—no resolution, no turn to praise. Some prayers end in the dark.