An Act of Sin
Preached by Jason Abbott
September 1, 2013
Psalm 88
1 O Lord, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let 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 who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O Lord;
I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.
1. Here is a man who is suffering (vv. 3-5, 7-9, 14-15, 18).
He feels isolated and alone:
a. My soul is filled with trouble (v. 3).
b. I have no strength (v. 4).
c. I’m like one who is dead (v. 5).
d. I feel you don’t remember me God (v. 5).
e. I’m overwhelmed (v. 7).
f. I have no friends (vv. 8, 18).
g. I have sorrow day after day (v. 9).
h. You hide your face from me God (v. 14).
i. I am close to death (v. 15).
The psalmist is in the darkest of places. He describes his situation in the most horrific, lonely, and bereaved imagery he can conjure. His pain is physical. His pain is personal. His pain is emotional. His pain is spiritual. This dark situation haunts every area of his life. He is like Job at his darkest moment.
Yet, probably every one of you has—at some point—felt like this. Such dark experiences are unavoidable in a broken world. All of us will face various times of tragedy and loss and depression and, eventually, our deaths.
Such times are not seen from a long way off either. They cannot be dodged. They come in an instant! A tornado, a test result from the hospital, a drunk driver across the medium! Tragedy typically comes suddenly!
This is what the Bible explains over and over again about life in a broken and fallen world. Yet, far too often we (in the Church) live our lives so as to avoid such pain. Now, I’m not suggesting we should masochistically seek out suffering. Yet, neither should we make it our primary goal to avoid all pain and suffering. This is simply hedonism defined in reverse. Instead of living to pursue pleasure, we are living to avoid pain. This is simply not a Christian ethic!
So, we must not think that this psalm has nothing to do with us. If it doesn’t speak to us now then it certainly will in the future. So the Apostle James explains:
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes (James 4:14).
For this reason, we must consider this Psalm deeply, and we must see what it has to teach us about God and about dealing with tragedy and about suffering in a fallen world.
One thing we can learn from the psalmist is no matter how dark the situation we should direct our complaints and requests to God.
2. Here is a man who relentlessly comes to God for help (vv. 1, 6-8, 14-18).
The psalmist calls out to God and complains to God and even blames God in asking for help:
a. Day and night I call to you (v. 1).
b. You put me in these depths (v. 6).
c. Your wrath lies upon me and overwhelms me (vv. 7, 16).
d. You caused my friends to shun me, and you have made me a horror to them (vv. 8, 18).
e. Why do you cast my soul away and hide your face (v. 14)?
f. I suffer your terrors (v. 15).
g. You surround me like a flood (v. 17).
It would be easy to get caught up in all of the messy questions of God’s responsibility that emerge here: Does the psalmist implicate God in tragedy and suffering? Doesn’t he charge God with perpetrating this situation against him? Isn’t he saying that God is to blame?
The short answer is that this man is pointing the finger at God.
However, we must not read this psalm as what it is not. It is not intended to be a doctrinal thesis on the origin of evil, pain, and suffering. It wasn’t written to teach us that God perpetrates evil tragedies against us. It isn’t designed to teach us that God is malicious. In fact, I believe it teaches us the opposite, and I believe the rest of the Bible teaches us the same thing.
The purpose of Psalm 88 is to give voice to one man’s personal struggle for hope and salvation and purpose in the midst of an extremely painful and sorrowful time. It is a brutally realistic and totally honest picture of a believer in despair.
So, once we get past the charges and begin to empathize with the psalmist’s struggles, we quickly see the importance of his faith in the midst of the darkness. The psalmist is certain that only God can save him! Moreover, he believes that God is merciful and benevolent enough to do so!
When you are in the darkness, Satan wants badly for you to give up on God! Don’t do it! Don’t ever do it! There is only one who brings light to the darkest of situations! There is only one who can save out of the grips of destruction! Don’t give in to Satan! Don’t give up on God!
Another lesson we learn from the psalm is on what we should base our prayers for salvation.
3. Here is a man who comes to God for help on the basis of God’s glory (vv. 10-12).
Look at the psalm with me. The psalmist asks a series of questions through which the purposes of his request for salvation are revealed.
Do you work wonders for the dead? / Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah / Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, / or your faithfulness in Abaddon? / Are your wonders known in the darkness, / or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness (vv. 10-12)?
In short, the psalmist is asking: What’s my purpose Lord? What’s the purpose of creation? If you aren’t glorified by it then what good is it? If you aren’t glorified by me then what good am I?
The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins with this question and answer:
What is the chief end of man?
Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
The psalmist here seems to understand this. So he’s asking: Lord if I can’t glorify you and praise you then why am I here? Save me so that I can sing your praises more profoundly to the nations!
Yet, don’t miss the glory the psalmist is giving to God by continuing to come to him in this darkest of moments. There is perhaps no clearer or more profound praise than the praise of a faithful believer who turns to God when there is no relief in sight!
R. C. Sproul, Jr. recently lost his wife and a daughter within a short period of time. Reflecting on these events and his faith, he explained, “If we really come to understand that our function…is to manifest the glory of God by being made into the image of… [Christ Jesus] who is the…image of… [God’s] glory…then we can rejoice even in the midst [of our sufferings].”1
If we live our lives with the erroneous notion that life is about being comfortable and happy until we go home to heaven so we can be even more comfortable and even more happy then when the dark days come (and they will come), our faith will be challenged and our hopes dashed. In such circumstances, Satan will draw close—as he did in the garden—in order to make us question God’s goodness and God’s love for us.
However, if we live our lives with the orthodox notion that life is about bringing God glory and being made like Christ Jesus in a fallen world then when the dark days come, our faith and our hopes will stand fast as we hold to the promises of God—that good times as well as bad times “work together for [the] good” of those who are Christ’s (Romans 8:28). This truth is a fortress against the lies that Satan would tell us! Such faith will not wither when dark days come!
You see, our beliefs really do matter! And they especially matter when we find ourselves in dark times with no discernible answer from God, with no salvation in sight. They really do matter when we find ourselves in a situation like the psalmist’s situation.
At such moments, we often want God to explain himself. This is what Job wanted God to do. In dark times, we want to ask: What’s the purpose for this suffering? Why did I get cancer? Why was my child killed in a car accident? Why God? Why do bad things happen to good people?
Yet again, we are amiss with our questions. For you and I aren’t good people! And when dark times come upon us (even the worst of times), we aren’t even getting a tidbit of what we truly deserve for our cosmic rebellion against our infinitely holy Creator God! Let me end with this:
When you suffer, you may be completely in the dark about the reason for your own suffering…. But the cross tells you what the reason isn’t. It can’t be that God doesn’t love you; it can’t be that he has no plan for you. It can’t be that he’s abandoned you. Jesus was abandoned, and paid for our sins, so that God the Father would never abandon you. The cross proves that he loves you and understands what it means to suffer.2
1Suffering and the Sovereignty of God: An Interview with R.C. Sproul Jr., found at www.ligonier.org
2Tim Keller, King’s Cross, 209.
