Catholic Commentary on Psalm 88

"LORD, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you." (Psalm 88:1)

The Darkest Psalm

Psalm 88 is unique in the Psalter: it is the only psalm that offers no resolution, no turn to praise, no statement of trust. It begins in darkness and ends in darkness. The final word is darkness. The psalmist has cried to God since youth and received no answer. He is like the slain lying in the grave, cut off from God's hand, drowning in the waves of God's wrath, abandoned by friends, overwhelmed by terrors. There is no comfort here. The prayer ends in utter desolation: darkness is my closest friend.

Yet the psalm is in the Bible. It was prayed in the Temple. The Church prays it in the Liturgy of the Hours. Its presence in Scripture is itself a theological statement: even the prayers that receive no audible answer, even the nights that produce no dawn within the prayer, are held by God and belong in the community's worship. St. John of the Cross described this kind of darkness as the dark night of the soul, through which God purifies the soul of its attachment to spiritual consolation. The darkness is not absence; it is a different mode of presence. And the one who prayed the darkest human prayer was Jesus on the Cross, crying out from Psalm 22 into a silence that became the Resurrection.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, if you are in the darkness of Psalm 88 today, know this: your prayer is heard even when it returns nothing. It is held in the hands of the one who spent three days in the heart of the earth before the dawn came. Pray this psalm. Mean it. And wait.

Prayer

Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. In the darkness, in the silence, when prayer returns nothing and consolation is a stranger, we still cry to you. Hear us from the depths. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

88
I Cry Out before You
A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. For the choirmaster. According to Mahalath Leannoth.* 88:0 Mahalath Leannoth is probably a musical or liturgical term; see also Psalms 53:1. A Maskil † 88:0 Maskil is probably a musical or liturgical term; used for Psalms 32, 42, 44–45, 52–55, 74, 78, 88–89, and 142. of Heman the Ezrahite.
 
1 O LORD, the God of my salvation,
day and night I cry out before You.
2 May my prayer come before You;
incline Your ear to my cry.
3 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those descending to the Pit.
I am like a man without strength.
 
5 I am forsaken among the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom You remember no more,
who are cut off from Your care.
 
6 You have laid me in the lowest Pit,
in the darkest of the depths.
7 Your wrath weighs heavily upon me;
all Your waves have submerged me.
Selah
8 You have removed my friends from me;
You have made me repulsive to them;
I am confined and cannot escape.
9 My eyes grow dim with grief.
I call to You daily, O LORD;
I spread out my hands to You.
10 Do You work wonders for the dead?
Do departed spirits rise up to praise You?
Selah
11 Can Your loving devotion be proclaimed in the grave,
Your faithfulness in Abaddon ‡ 88:11 Abaddon means Destruction.?
12 Will Your wonders be known in the darkness,
or Your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
 
13 But to You, O LORD, I cry for help;
in the morning my prayer comes before You.
14 Why, O LORD, do You reject me?
Why do You hide Your face from me?
 
15 From my youth I was afflicted and near death.
I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
Your terrors have destroyed me.
17 All day long they engulf me like water;
they enclose me on every side.
18 You have removed my beloved and my friend;
darkness is my closest companion.

*^ 88:0 Mahalath Leannoth is probably a musical or liturgical term; see also Psalms 53:1.

†^ 88:0 Maskil is probably a musical or liturgical term; used for Psalms 32, 42, 44–45, 52–55, 74, 78, 88–89, and 142.

‡88:11 88:11 Abaddon means Destruction.

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