Mental Health In The Psalms: 88 Series

MENTAL HEALTH IN THE PSALMS: 88

PSALM 88:1-18

#mentalhealth

INTRODUCTION 1 … POOR BISHOP HOOPER PSALM 88 (EVERY PSALM) youtube.com/watch?v=5n4vKXZ1b_M [5:29]

INTRODUCTION… People Talk about Psalm 88, bleacherreport.com/articles/913239-the-50-worst-teams

The Psalm that we will be looking at today has quite a bit talked about it and not much of it good because it is just sad. If Psalm 88 were a baseball team, it would be the Cleveland Spiders which is considered to be the worst team in any sport ever. In 1899, the Spiders went 20-134 and only ever had a winning streak of 2 games.

If Psalm 88 were a football team, it would be the 1934 Cincinnati Reds. Now I know you are thinking I messed up and said football and not baseball, but the Cincinnati Reds Football team played from 1933-1934 and set records for the lowest amount of points scored in a season with 38 points in 1933 and 37 points in 1934 and the team in 1934 had an 0-8 record.

Basically… just sad. People talk about Psalm 88 and that is pretty much the impression:

* “Psalm 88 is a song, yet a remarkably sad song, and is often regarded as the saddest psalm in the entire collection.” (David Guzik, Enduring Word)

* “Psalm 88 builds to an emotional climax and then an abrupt end which is ‘darkness is my only friend’ but provides no sense of closure.” (Daniel Estes, NAC Commentary, Ps 73-150)

* “The Psalm is almost without divisions and is a ‘slow unbroken wail’ expressive of the ‘monotony of woe.’ (The Pulpit Commentary, 1913 pg 230)

* “The person who wrote this was called to walk in darkness and had no light.” (The Pulpit Commentary, 1913 pg 232)

* “He does not speak of one kind of calamity only; but of calamities so heaped upon one another that his heart was filled with sorrow, till it could contain no more.” (Calvin’s Commentaries, Volume V, pg 409)

* “The prayer is a deeply piercing shout… here a loud cry for divine help. The psalmist shouts loudly to the Lord; hoping that He will hear.” (VanGemeren, Expositors BC, pg 565)

The tone of the Scripture that we will read is incredibly sad. More than sad.

The other background information we need to know about this Psalm before we read it is that unlike others we have read recently, this one was not written or composed by King David. This Psalm was written by Heman the Ezrahite. What do we know about He-Man? We know that his real name is Prince Adam and he comes from a planet called Eternia. The Sorceress gave him a magic sword and when Adam calls on the power of Greyskull, the power comes on him and transforms Adam into He-Man and he fights evil Skeletor. His toys were all the rage in the 1980s. No?

Ok, wrong Heman. The Heman who wrote this Psalm is most likely the one mentioned in 1 Chronicles 25:5 as being “the king’s seer” and one who sang worship and played instruments (1 Chronicles 6:33, 15:19, 16:41-42) and who is mentioned elsewhere in the Bible as being incredibly wise (1 Kings 4:31). This man was musically talented, led worship, and was considered wise. In many ways, it shocks us that this man wrote this Psalm.

TRANSITION

So, we have a very depressing and sad song as our Scripture today not written by David, but by a wise man we should very much call a prophet. Folks who say that the Bible does not address mental illness or emotional struggles or doesn’t have anything to say about depression or other struggles has never read Psalm 88 or any of the other Psalms we have been covering recently.

Folks who believe the Bible and mental health do not have anything to do with each other are not alone in their ideas. We may not think this is a worthy topic to address in sermons or from the Bible or in church. Mental health is not a topic that the Church (the big ‘C’ church) traditionally addresses well. Over the years, we Christians have left mental health to godless psychoanalysts and human-centered therapists to the detriment of generations of Christians. We divide mental health and spiritual health as two different areas of life to our detriment. Not everything a psychologist or psychiatrist may offer is terrible or even untrue, but God has much to say about mental health because our mind is an integral part of how God Almighty made us.

Our purpose in these sermons is to look at mental health in the Bible and to learn from the Scriptures what God says about mental health and emotional fitness and healthy patterns of thinking and feeling and living. We can do that because God already shares those truths with us. Let’s read Psalm 88.