Difficult Texts: Psalm 88

Within contemporary Christian worship, based largely on praise and adoration, what happens when we feel abandoned and angry towards God? The psalms of lament provide honest expressions of such emotion, but they are frequently edited, removing the uncomfortable verses. Peterson describes this as ‘psalmectomies’. ¹ The psalms are an important resource for spirituality at all times, only that spirituality is accessed in different ways when in periods of anguish.

We behave in recognized psychological ways as a result of trauma. Contemporary psychology, particularly the Kubler-Ross model, offers explanations of human behaviour in times of distress. The contemporary reader’s empathy with the psalmist increases when aspects of his/her own behaviour are expressed in the lament psalms, providing a spiritual and pastoral resource.

The states of the Kubler-Ross model can be summarized as follows: ²

denial – a conscious or unconscious refusal to accept facts relating to the situation

anger – with themselves, with others and with God

bargaining – trading for improvement to the situation

depression – the reality of the situation becomes clear and also grieving for lost opportunities

acceptance – the final acknowledgement of the situation

There is some affinity between Kubler-Ross and lament psalms. Although not a precise parallel, some of the states can be recognized and the majority of psalms display a movement from lament to praise in sufficient similarity to suggest the movement in Kubler-Ross (e.g. Psalm 13: lament 13.1–2; petition 13.3–4; and change 13.5–6).

There are occasions, however, where there is no resolution. Psalm 88 appears to be unmitigated misery. Three times the psalmist has called on God (88.1, 9, 13), but to no purpose. God himself has caused the problem:

You have put me in the depths of the Pit,

in the regions dark and deep.

Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves. (88.6--7 nrsv)

God is the root cause of anguish; he should act to rectify the situation. The psalmist is isolated and excluded from his/her friends, which is also believed to be God’s fault. God has not responded to prayer, which has been day and night without answer. ³ The structure of the psalm is established by the psalmists repeated references to persistent prayer (88.2–3, 10, 14). ⁴

The psalm does not consider or justify why God has seemingly abandoned the psalmist, only highlighting that one partner of the covenant (i.e., God) has reneged. The psalmist is close to death and eager to spell out that the dead cannot praise God, only the living, encouraging God to intervene. The pattern of two sets of words shows the incongruity between where the speaker is and what God does. ⁵

Do you work wonders for the dead?

Do the shades 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 saving help in the land of forgetfulness? (88.10–12)

The psalmist does not consider the amount of distress suffered to be justified. God is being unreasonable:

Wretched and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.

Your wrath has swept over me;

your dread assaults destroy me. (88.15–16)

The psalm closes in a series of renewed accusations of unwarranted misfortune.

They surround me like a flood all day long;

from all sides they close in on me.

You have caused friend and neighbour to shun me;

my companions are in darkness. (88.17–18)

Although there are associations to the Kubler-Ross model in the context of anger (88.8–9), bargaining (88.10–11 – the dead cannot praise you so let me live to praise you) and depression (88.3–5), denial is absent as the psalmist clearly understands his/her situation and, without a movement from distress to some form of resolution, there is no correlation to the movement outlined in Kubler-Ross towards acceptance. The importance of admitting feelings and emotions (and recognizing that that is happening in others) is significant psychologically and is the beginning of healing. It could be argued that this psalm provides specific support for those stuck in one of the Kubler-Ross states (e.g. depression). Pastorally, the psalms provide a means of articulating the depth of feeling to God, so the psalm serves a purpose even if it does not move the contemporary reader on to another state.

However, lament psalms were not written in the context of a twentieth-century psychology. They have a spirituality of their own, enabling people to discover God at work in their lives. Spiritually, if we believe that God hears and responds to prayer, how can we raise before him the anger and the confusion we feel when he seems absent or uncaring? For some this may lead to a rejection of God but for those who believe in a loving God it is a struggle to resolve this contradiction.

Psalm 88 is, and has been for thousands of years, the means to bring honest, sometimes violent, emotions, to God. It allows us to demand that God should act in response to our distress. Anger is a reality of our human behaviour as is the desire for vengeance and retaliation. To deny it is to lie to ourselves and to lie to God. We must be allowed to express the reality of our emotions as they are expressed in the reality of the psalmist’s situation in Psalm 88. In a culture of praise and adoration towards God, Psalm 88 gives permission to rant at God, removing the guilt of those who are angry with God and who feel that their faith is somehow diminished by their feelings. Through the honest expression of emotion, people may discover a closer, deeper relationship developing with God. It allows him to reach us through that red mist of anguish. Psalm 88 gives permission for us to voice our struggles to reconcile ourselves with what we believe God in all his power and might intends for us and our world, when we are surrounded by disaster, violence and despair.