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Psalm 88: The Black Psalm


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INTRODUCTION:

In a certain sense, all the psalms are Messianic, all of them point to Jesus. Because this psalm is
particularly dark, some might want to argue that perhaps it is less the case here. But I think we
should go the other way. This psalm is dark, but consider the darkness Jesus went through for us.
There may be lesser applications for us—wherever the Head is, the body is not far away—but we
will consider this psalm as preeminently fulfilled in the moment when Christ was abandoned for
our sake.
THE TEXT:
“O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee: Let my prayer come before
thee: Incline thine ear unto my cry; For my soul is full of troubles: And my life draweth nigh unto
the grave . . .” (Ps. 88:1–18).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
This dark psalm begins with the cry of faith—“God of my salvation” (v. 1). He is in great anguish,
crying out day and night (v. 1). He wants his cry to come before the Lord because his soul is full
of trouble and he is on the brink of death (v. 2). He is reckoned among those who descend to
Sheol, or the pit (v. 3). He is counted among the dead (vv. 4-5). He is in the pit because God has
put him there (v. 6). The wrath of God rests upon him, and all the waves of God wash over him
(v. 7). His friends and acquaintances have scattered (v. 8). He has called out to God daily, but to
no effect (v. 9). Will the dead praise God (v. 10)? Will God’s lovingkindness and faithfulness be
declared in the grave and underworld (v. 11-12)? He continues to cry out to God (v. 13). Lord,
why do you cast me off? Why have you forsaken me (v. 14)? He has been ready to die from his
youth on (v. 15). The fierce wrath of God overwhelms him (v. 16). God’s terrors envelop him like
water (v. 17). God has ripped away from him those who are dear to him (v. 18).
THE CENTRAL DARKNESS:
At the creation of the world, darkness was on the face of the deep and the Spirit moved on the
face of the waters (Gen. 1:2). At the dying of Jesus, darkness covered all the land for three hours
(Matt. 27:45), and at the death of Jesus the veil in the Temple was ripped in two (Matt. 27:51). Jesus
cried out in utter abandonment, “My God, my God . . .” (Matt. 27:46). In this moment, there was
nothing attractive about Him (Is. 53:2). “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is the mystery
of propitiation, where the wrath of God is fully poured out—and anticipated here in this psalm.
LORD GOD OF MY SALVATION
The only words of hope in this psalm are in the very beginning of it. There is this expression of
hope at the start, and it is all downhill from there. The psalm ends by driving into the brick wall
of black despair. The first verse is Jesus setting His face to do what must be down. He sets His
face like flint to go to Jerusalem (Is. 50:7). Lord God of my salvation. He prays that the will of
the Father be done, and not His own (Matt. 26:39). Lord God of my salvation. He, for the joy
that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame (Heb. 12:2). Lord God of my
salvation. What the Lord Jesus knew in the light, He held onto in the darkness.
DOWN TO THE PIT:
A number of words are used to describe the realm of shadows, the realm of the dead. One He-
brew word for it is Sheol (v. 3), with the Greek equivalent as Hades. Another word is bor, or pit (v.
4). Then there is qeber, or burial chamber (v. 5). And the deeps (v. 6), also associated with Sheol.
Another word is destruction, or Abaddon (v. 11). The cry here is one of rhetorical despair, with the
implied answer of “no one will hear in the land of forgetfulness.”
But even here, God answered prayer. Jesus descended to the lower parts of the earth (Eph. 4:9).
He preached to the spirits who had been disobedient at the time of Noah (1 Pet. 3:18-19). God
did not abandon His soul to Hades (Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27, and so when He came back from the
dead, the righteous dead came with Him (Matt. 27:51-53). He then led captivity captive and gave
gifts to me (Eph. 4:8).
TRUE PROPITIATION:
Jesus experienced the full wrath of God (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 4:10). It was all poured out upon
Him. And as we see from the expressions of this psalm, He did not experience it as a “theologi-
cal truth.” Jesus cried out in actual despair, and in that cry of despair He reconciled the world to
God. “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). “Thy
wrath lieth hard on me” (v. 7). “suffer thy terrors” (v. 15). “Thy fierce wrath goeth over me” (v. 16).
And why? All for you.
TRUE FRIENDS:
Jesus calls us His friends ( John 15:15), and He felt the abandonment by his disciples acutely (Luke
22:61). It is a significant part of this lament as well. God as put away His acquaintance far from
Him (v. 8). God has made Him an abomination to them (v. 8). Lover, and friend, and acquaintance
have been removed (v. 18). They have gone into blackness.
And what was it all for? Why did this psalm have to end in this way? So that we would not end
in this way. “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: In the midst of the congregation will I
praise thee” (Ps. 22:22).
He died in shame so that He might receive eternal glory. He died without a people so that He
might have a people. Jesus died friendless so that He might have friends forever.

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Psalm 87: Glorious Things Are Spoken of Thee


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Introduction:

In this psalm we are encouraged to exult in the corporate realities of God’s salvation. God saves individuals one by one, but He never saves them to be alone. Just as we are not saved by good works, but rather to good works (Eph. 2:8-10), so also we are not saved by a crowd or a congregation, but we most assuredly are saved to a crowd and a congregation.

The Text:
“His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob . . .” (Psalm 87:1–7).

Summary of the Text:
The physical city of God was in the holy mountains (v. 1). His heavenly Jerusalem is in the holy mountains of His everlasting wisdom. The Lord Jehovah loves the individual dwellings of Jacob, but He loves the public assembly of His people more (v. 2). The city of God is glorious, and it is right to ascribe glory to her (v. 3). The psalmist then mentions a series of pagan powers which will be brought to worship the Lord, which will be “born” in Zion (v. 4). And of Zion itself, it will be said that men of eminence were born in her (v. 5). When the Lord Jehovah conducts His great census, He will be the one who marks that this one was born (again) there (v. 6). The musicians will be there, and all our springs will be in the Lord (v. 7).

His Foundation in the Holy Mountains:
The Temple that Solomon built was on Mt. Moriah. The Tabernacle of David, in which the sacrifices were largely musical, was on Mt. Zion. The tabernacle from the wilderness was on Mt. Gibeon (2 Chron. 1:3), about 6 miles northwest of Jerusalem. In a way, all of them merged into the Temple, and began to be known as Zion.
God’s intention was always to rebuild the Tabernacle of David (Amos 9:11-12). James cites this prophecy as the basis for including the Gentiles as Gentiles in the Christian church (Acts 15:16). And that lines with what this psalm teaches us about God’s purposes. And the thing that enabled the Gentiles to come in—the blood sacrifice of Christ—was also that which enabled us to substitute musical sacrifice for blood sacrifices.
So the eternal counsels of God are the holy mountains in which we dwell.
Rahab and Babylon . . .
Rahab is a poetic name for Egypt, and signifies her insolence and pride. Who will be brought into Zion, and reckoned among her children when the Lord conducts His census? The proud of Egypt will be there (Acts 2:10). The worldly of Babylon will be (Acts 2:9). The fiercely angry from Philistia will come (Acts 2:9). The covetous of Tyre were no doubt in the mix. The strangers of Ethiopia will be strangers no more (Acts 8:27).
It is striking that when the foreigners are itemized in Acts on the day of Pentecost, the only ones who are not indicated in this psalm in some way are the Greeks—Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia.

He Loves the Gates of Zion:
God does love the individual dwellings of Jacob. He loves it when children are brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He loves it when the things of God are discussed with affection around the dinner table. He loves it when a family prays and sings together. He loves familial piety.
But He loves the public assembly more. God loves the public gates of Zion more than the private dwellings of Jacob. The two need not be adversarial, of course, but we need to know how God prioritizes things. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Heb. 10:25).

Pride in His People:
From the context we can tell that “this and that man” were born in her, and it is referring to men of some eminence. This is how we tell stories, is it not? When I was a child in Annapolis, the public library was a former tavern/inn from the 1700’s, and when you went down into the kids’ section in the basement, there was a plaque that informed you that “George Washington slept here.”

This expression is literally “a man and a man,” which may be a peculiar form of the superlative. The Israel of God has produced some of the most amazing warriors, inventors, workers, heroes, scholars, and adventurers who have ever lived. From David to Augustine, from Livingstone to Cranmer, and from Edwards to Antipas, the kingdom of God is the place of which we may say, “This one was born in her.”

Of course, the one who boasts must boast in the Lord. We know that unless the Lord had accomplished it, none of it would have been accomplished at all.

The Lord Himself Shall Count:
When Elijah despaired of everything, the apostle Paul reminds us that God had reserved for Himself 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18; Rom. 11:4). God is the one who maintains the number of the elect firmly in the palm of His hand (John 10:29).
When the Lord counts His people, you can be assured that He will not have to count twice.

All My Springs Are In You:
There are two ways to take this cryptic statement. All my springs are in the Lord could mean that all my life, all my resources, all my strength, come from Him. I draw on Him, my limitless source of living water. My springs are in Him. This takes it as that which flows to me.

The second way can take it as that which flows from me, as in, a man’s posterity (Prov. 5:16). All my posterity, all my descendants, all the children of my children’s children, are in the Lord.

And of course, if Christ is everything to us, it is possible to take it in both senses.

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