The Gloomiest Chapter In The Bible – Psalm 88 – Passing Through Stormy Seas – Part 1 Series

I am not a prophet because there are no prophets today, but God has given us discernment, and His word, as an examination of the human condition. This is what I believe will happen to society in the days ahead because God has been unseated by Godless men who proceed from bad to worse: (1). Lawlessness will increase because man no longer accepts biblical standards of God and has placed himself in Satan’s camp and Satan is the lawless one. (2). We will see more and more chaos descending on us through world events and political unrest and civil unrest because politicians have “lost it” because God has given them over to their own corrupted resources. Romans tells us that. (3). People will become more hostile against God and therefore against God’s people because Satan’s power and influence is increasing. (4). People will become more displaced in their reasoning, in their minds, and in proper logical thinking and they will be more isolated, introverted, and more addicted to substances and social media. None of that can ever help the despair that comes into people’s lives because of the God-shaped vacuum each one has that only God can fill.

Verses 4,5,6 are among the gloomiest in the bible. It is a dark place to be in. Look at some of the expressions used and these are from the NASB – pit (death/hell; a synonym); forsaken among the dead (no better than a corpse thrown over the city wall); another body that lies with all those slain/killed (in other words, nothingness, worthlessness); cut off from God (this is never the case, but for many it feels like that all the time); the lowest pit (in the lowest place of hell with the sense that he will never rise to be happy in life again). Just to emphasise that position in hell, he adds “in the depths.”

The sons of Korah were the singers and choir people of the Tabernacle/Temple but Tabernacle in this Psalm because Heman was of David’s time. Because of the similarities in many of David’s psalms with this one, I think this is a psalm of David’s experiences given to the Korahites to form into a song. David was often in fear of his life when Saul and David’s own son Absalom tried to hunt him down to kill him. David was in a dark place.

Who wrote Psalm 23 the great Shepherd Psalm? Well, David. Who wrote Psalm 56? Well, David. Listen to a few verses from that psalm - Psalm 56 v 1-4 “Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me. Fighting all day long he oppresses me. My foes have trampled upon me all day long for they are many who fight proudly against me. When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?” To reinforce that point this is what follows in verse 11 - Psalm 56 v 11 “In God I have put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

There is an interesting point that comes out of all this. We see it right through David’s psalms. If you asked him after writing Psalm 23, “David, would you be ever battered in life because you know the Lord is your Shepherd?” he would reply. “No.” However in psalms written after that, in many of them, he expresses great fear for his life and feels forgotten or forsaken by God. How can these two positions be reconciled? I want you to recall an incident in John 6 when the disciples were on the water and a storm arose and they were possessed by great fear and thought the end was near. All at once they saw Jesus walking on the water and were more greatly afraid. Now earlier in the chapter Jesus promised He would come to them as John records, “It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.” Yet it seemed to them Jesus had forgotten them if not even abandoned them.