Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 88 | Date: January 12, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Dark Psalm

Psalm 88. Psalm 88 today. This is called, referred to often as the dark psalm, or as the black sheep of the Psalter. Reasons I’ll explain in just a minute. Notice the superscript, and you’ll notice something unique. I was going to say unusual, but something unique about this superscript. We’ve been paying attention to these as we go through. You might recall that I’ve mentioned that the superscripts have two parts. One is the authorship and genre, so it’ll be a Psalm of David or a Maskil of David or something like that—so authorship and genre. But then also there’s a second part to the superscripts that has to do with performance. So it’ll be “to the choirmaster” or “for the flutes” or something like that, something to do with performance. And I’ve mentioned that it is the performance aspect, when they are included at all, the performance aspect in the superscripts always comes first. That is always except Psalm 88.

And you’ll notice a difference here in another respect. A song, a psalm of David, or a psalm of the sons of Korah, and then the performance to the choirmaster according to Mahalath Leannoth. And now again, another genre and authorship, a Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. So there’s a problem here of some kind. There are two superscripts, we have two authors mentioned, and two genres mentioned. Now we have already determined—I’ve discussed this before, I don’t have to go into that now—and that is that the performance aspect of the superscript always comes first because it is, in fact, the postscript of the previous psalm. I think that will start showing up in years to come; it’ll start showing up in our Bible translations. The format generally is superscript, the psalm, and then a postscript, when there’s a postscript at all. So the “to the choirmaster” is the postscript to Psalm 87.

If that’s the postscript to the previous psalm, well then, a Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite is clearly the superscript for this psalm. And then you’ll notice that first line of the superscript, “A song, a psalm of the sons of Korah,” you’ll notice that reads almost exactly the way the superscript of Psalm 87 reads. This is probably, almost certainly, a scribal error bringing that down to this psalm again as well. So we have the superscript “to the choirmaster,” and then “according to Mahalath Leannoth,” and that’s the postscript to the previous psalm. And then our superscript—I’m sorry, I’m stumbling all over it—our superscript then is a Maskil, that’s another genre of psalms, a Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

All right, verse one: “Oh Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry, for my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I’m counted among those who go down to the pit. I’m a man who has no strength, 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. 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 your waves. Selah. 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. My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord. I spread out my hands to you. 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?” That is a word for destruction. “Are your wonders known in the darkness or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But I, O Lord, cry to you. In the morning, my prayer comes before you. Oh, Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors. I’m helpless. Your wrath has swept over me, and your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long. They close in on me together. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. My companions have become darkness.”

The Components Of A Lament Psalm

While this clearly is a lament song, as we’ve seen many in that genre, a psalm of lament, we have the typical components of a lament psalm. In verses one and two, we have the initial address to God: “O Lord, God of my salvation.” That’s your clue, first off, that this is a lament psalm. Then we have the initial petition to be heard: “I cry out day and night before you.” He addresses God again in verse 9b, and then also again in verse 13. Then verses three to eight, we have his complaint, his lament: “My soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to Sheol.” And then verses 10 to 12, he makes his case. He makes his argument before God, which we’ll see as we move along. Then verses 14 to 18, he gives his complaint or his lament again: “Oh Lord, why do you cast away my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?”

So this is clearly a lament song. There are some outstanding differences, though, with this lament psalm as opposed to all of the others. Number one, there’s almost, almost no petition in this psalm. You remember the lament psalms are rightly classified as petition lament psalms, because at the heart of a lament psalm is the plea for deliverance and the plea for help. We do not have that in this psalm. All we have is the—the only petition we have is initially in verse one, where—in verse two: “let my prayer come before you,” the general request, “hear my prayer.” That’s the only petition we have in this psalm. There’s no explicit plea for deliverance and no petition to subdue the enemy or something like that that we often find in the lament psalms. So the first difference: there’s almost no petition.

Number two, there’s no explicit praise. Now remember we’ve seen that this is one of the essential elements of a lament psalm; that in his complaining, in his lamenting of his situation before God, it is characteristic of the lament psalms that that lament is always accompanied by praise, and that there’s an important lesson to be learned in that. There’s a right way and a wrong way to complain or lament before God, and the psalmist consistently, when they offer their laments before the Lord, it’ll come with a praise to God’s goodness and God’s grace, and so on. Here I say no explicit praise. There’s only a hint of that that we’ll find a little bit later. He’s desired a praise in verses 9 through 12.

And then the third difference with this psalm, standing away from all of the other lament psalms, is there’s no expression of confidence. It is another essential mark of the lament psalms that in the midst of his lament, there will come this exclamation of his trust and confidence in God: “Oh Lord, you are my shield. Oh Lord, in you I trust.” We don’t have that here in this psalm. So in a sense, then, the most important elements of a lament are missing. And so this has been called the dark psalm or the black sheep of the psalter. Out of curiosity, I looked at Isaac Watts’ psalter that he famously rendered the psalms into meters so they could be sung. He has no rendition of Psalm 88. I looked out of curiosity in our Trinity Hymnal; we have only one, that’s number 761 in our Trinity Hymnal, is the only song that we have from Psalm 88. And it renders the thought of the psalm well, as I looked through it, but it does make more of the petition and more of the praise than the psalm itself does, and it doesn’t work its way toward any glimpse of Christ either that we have learned since Isaac Watts to do with these psalms. So it’s called the darkest psalm or the black sheep of the Psalter.

The Severity Of The Suffering

And yet it’s inspired of God and it’s instructive for us. The author is Heman, which is somewhat ironic that the author of this psalm, his name would be Heman. Heman means faithful. And here is this black sheep of the Psalter written by one named Faithful. Now he said he’s Heman the Ezrahite. This is not Ezra the Judahite that we find in 1 Chronicles 2 or 1 Kings chapter four. This is Heman the Ezrahite. That would make him the brother—in fact, you find this in 1 Chronicles 15. You remember where we saw way back at the beginning of this series where David brought psalm singing to accompany the worship of Israel. He appointed various of the Levites in charge of the singing. There’s famously Asaph; Heman is Asaph’s brother. We find him in some respects, even in some passages, he could appear to be even having a more important post than Asaph. But Heman is one who is one of the chief singers, choir directors. He played the trumpet, which in my book makes him a great guy. He also was instructed to play the cymbals and to play them loudly. So here we have an important music leader in the congregation of Israel. His name is Heman the Ezrahite.

Now here we have in Psalm 88 then reflected an extended period of severe suffering and trial for Heman. He’s in the depths of it. The emotions are exhausted. They seem to be frayed. He seems desperate. And we sense the severity of the suffering, and it’s important to get the psalm to notice that—the severity of the suffering that’s mentioned throughout. Verse three: “my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol.” Verses eight and nine: “you’ve caused my companions to shun me. You’ve made me a horror to them. I’m shut in so that I cannot escape. My eye grows dim through sorrow.” Verse 15: “afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors. I’m helpless.” Then verses 16 and 17, he tells us that this suffering is continuous and without any relent: “Your wrath has swept over me. Your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long. They close in on me together.” And then verse 18, he ends it up telling us that he’s all alone in this suffering: “You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. My companions have become darkness.” For some reason in his suffering, his friends have found him repulsive and they’ve rejected him.

As a way of overview then, we have in Psalm 88 three stanzas. Each of them is marked by this direct address to God. We have that in verse one: “Oh Lord, God of my salvation.” We have it again in verse 9b. We have it again in verse 13. And those are the three stanzas of the psalm. Each address marks out the stanza, and in stanza one, verses one to nine, we have his address to God, and then it’s followed by his complaint, or his lament. In stanza two, verses 9 to 12, he addresses God, and in this stanza he makes his case, and gives his argument to God, and explains his situation to God. And then verses 13 to 18, we have the third stanza, and here he addresses God, and then again it’s followed by his final complaint.

Now, one of the things—and we find this often in the Lament Psalms—is that Heman’s affliction is compounded by the fact that God does not seem to hear him. We find that in the Lament Psalms not infrequently. “You hide your face from me,” that’s what we have here in verse 14: “Why do you hide your face from me?” Back in verse one: “I cry day and night.” The implication is there’s no answer. I go to you, I ask, I plead, and heaven is silent. In fact, what makes it even worse, Heman seems to think, or at least feel, that his affliction is sent specifically from the hand of God himself, that God has become his enemy. Verses six to eight: “you have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions of dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me and you overwhelm me with all your waves. You have caused my companions to shun me. You have made me a horror to them.” So he sees himself as living under God’s all-inclusive care. He recognizes that God is the God of all providence and all of life is directed by him. And yet at this point, it seems that God has turned on him, that God is angry. And all of this he sees as coming from the hand of God. Verse 14 is more direct: “Oh Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?” It seems that God has just discarded him, tossed him aside like a piece of trash. So verse 16, it seems like God is angry: “Your wrath has swept over me. Your dreadful assaults destroy me.”

This is not your run-of-the-mill momentary disappointment. Heman is in the depths of suffering. It’s been an extended period of time. It is severe, and it seems that God is after him. He’s exhausted. It’s been a severe trial. He feels all alone, destitute. His family, his friends have forsaken him, rejected him. Verse 13: “But I, O Lord, cry to you. In the morning my prayer comes before you.” This word “cry” that is used here—”O Lord, I cry to you”—it connotes an audible sob. And all he can do is sob out loud and cry audibly for God to help. We find this in other of the Lament Psalms as well. We find it in Job where there’s nothing left to do but scream, cry out aloud. You see something of the intensity of his emotions. He’s at the end of his rope. It seems that there’s no hope left at all. He tells us, “I wake up every morning and it’s still here, and I cry out to you day and night, and I keep crying out day and night, and I call out to you.” And what does God do in response? Nothing.

So this is a trial then, not only an emotional, probably a physical trial as well, but not just that. This is a trial of faith. God seems to be off somewhere in the remote distance, doesn’t seem to care. He doesn’t answer my prayers. The suffering just goes on and on and on. By the way, we should note this as we go along. We see this often in the experience of the people of God in the scriptures. Note the contrast here with what you hear in the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel that’s preached today. That certainly doesn’t square with what Heman is experiencing. I mean, if you have faith, God will keep you healthy. He’ll keep you strong. He’ll even give you wealth. It’s difficult to square that with the experience of Heman; it’s been the experience of many of God’s people throughout history. This was the experience of Job, of course; this is the experience of David, the experience of Joseph, the experience of Paul, and of course it was the experience of Jesus as well. And sometimes it’s our experience as well. Prolonged sickness, prolonged sickness of someone you love, bereavement, financial collapse, injustice, betrayal by a friend, and then you add to all of that what seems to be unanswered prayer. Where is God in all of this? And so you’re left to do what the psalmist does, and that is just cry out, sob out loud. He’s brought to the bottom. This has often been the lot of the faithful. And one lesson of this psalm—and we’ll see this more as we go along, we’ve seen it before in other of the lament psalms—and that is that God calls us to a robust faith that is worthy of him. He calls us to honor him with the trust that he deserves in every circumstance. And sometimes it is through experiences like this that we learn that lesson.

Heman Makes His Argument

Well, we come then to verses 10 to 12, and here Heman makes his argument. You might remember in the lament psalms, it’s frequent that we find the psalmist, particularly David, protesting his innocence at this point in his lament. “This isn’t fair. This isn’t right. I don’t deserve this. What they have done is wrong. They need to be destroyed.” We don’t find any of that in this psalm. Here, that kind of thinking is just, well, at most, it’s just implicit in the background somewhere. In verses 1 to 9, again, in verses 13 to 18, he is seeking to arouse God’s pity. “Lord, I cry before you. I call on you, and you don’t answer. Why have you cast me off? I’ve outstretched my arms and my hands and crying before you. You don’t answer.” This kind of language is obviously intended to evoke God’s pity. “Look on me with favor, hear me when I cry.” But all of that is rather implicit.

He makes his argument in verses 10 to 12, and here’s what it is. Verse 10: “do you work wonders for the dead?” So evidently he feels that he’s dying. “Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave or your faithfulness in destruction? Are your wonders known in the darkness or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” The assumption in this kind of talk is that if I die, I won’t be able to praise you. Now, the plea then is only implicit, and that is that if I’m to give you praise, I have to stay alive. How can I give you praise if I die? Now, you’re probably thinking, that’s not really the strongest argument you can make, is it? And I don’t think it is. It is inspired. There’s nothing wrong with it. But it’s not the strongest argument he could have made. But this is what he comes up with.

I’ve said here that there’s no explicit petition, no call to help, no call for deliverance—all of that’s implicit. There’s no explicit praise, no explicit trust. And so this is called the black sheep of the Psalter. And yet, we must not misread Heman and fault him wrongly. Despite the relentlessness of his suffering, despite the severity of it, despite the fact that God doesn’t seem to answer when he prays, Heman has not lost sight of God, and he has not lost hope in God either. Look at verse one, how he starts the psalm: “Oh Lord, God of my salvation.” That’s the key verse of the psalm. That is the verse that in the context of the rest of the psalm, gives us the message that Heman wants to give. He will not—Heman will not judge God by his circumstances. Though he’s perplexed, and though he’s at his wit’s end, and the affliction is awful, and even though all of the evidence seems to the contrary, his hope is in God. The Lord remains the God of his salvation, and he comes to him in prayer. And so, he persists in calling out to God. It’s not just a once-and-done thing. His suffering continues, but so does his praying. So verse 1: “O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you.” Again, verse 9b: “every day I call upon you, O Lord. I spread out my hands to you.” Verse 13: “but I, O Lord, cry out to you in the morning. My prayer comes before you.”

And we might say that the case that he makes back in verses 10 to 12 is rather weak. If you don’t help me, I can’t praise you. Is it really the end of the discussion to say that when I’m dead, I can’t praise God? We’ll say more about that in a minute. But however lacking his argument is, however weak it might be, it reflects still a heart that is directed to God. And that runs through the psalm—verse 1, verse 9, verse 13—where it’s explicit, where he addresses God, but then it’s implicit throughout. Your hand, your work—his whole orientation is toward God himself. So Heman here has not grown cynical. Heman here is not in outright despair. He’s not throwing in the towel. He’s not saying here, “Lord, if you don’t help me out of this, I’m done with you.” He’s not giving up. What we see here in Psalm 88 is not a bad saint. What we see in Psalm 88 is a tired saint. He’s worn out, wearing out. He’s discouraged, feels beaten down. But he is not faithless. Verse one: “Oh Lord, God of my salvation.”

Bruce Waltke comments here in a way that I think is very helpful, that in the honor roll of the faithful, Heman stands higher than even Job. He stands higher than even Job or the writer of the book of—the preacher of the book of Ecclesiastes. Unlike Job, Heman here does not question the goodness of God. Job did. Unlike Ecclesiastes, he doesn’t question the value of life. When all of the evidence seems to the contrary, for Heman, God remains his hope. And so verse one, he calls out to God. Verse nine, he calls out to God. Verse 13, he calls out to God. Verse one, constantly. Verse nine, daily. And then again, verse 13. Heman’s faith, Heman’s faith matches Job’s faith at its finest. You remember when Job said, “though he slay me, yet will I trust him.” That’s Job’s high point. That’s what Heman is saying here. Proverbs chapter 14, verse 32 says of the righteous person: “even in death, the righteous seek refuge in God.” That’s what Heman is doing here in Psalm 88. Like Paul, he’s perplexed (2 Corinthians 4), but he’s not driven to despair.

Now, just speaking from my own experience, I understand suffering. I understand intense suffering. I understand prolonged, intense suffering. I’ve never shared with all of you all that we experienced during our daughter’s long suffering and finally her death. Infection in her central nervous system, her spine affected not only physically but infecting her brain. We had—the whole Lansdale police force knows us all by name. They’ve been out to help us so many times. I understand suffering. I understand intense suffering. I understand prolonged suffering. But I cannot, for the life of me, understand a Christian in suffering even considering giving up on God, throwing in the towel, turning on God. I can’t understand it. It is always ours, always ours, like Heman, to keep pressing after the God of our salvation, to honor him with the trust that he deserves. We see this all through the laments. We see David and other psalmists who lament using the same language: “I cry out to you. I wait patiently. Save me, O God. Help me.”

But it is true that we too easily forget too much. In good times, we forget our need of God. We forget our need that we are dependent upon him for every happy moment and for every degree of prosperity, every degree of health we’ve ever had. We forget that. When all things are good and happy, we tend to forget. And in suffering, we forget. We tend to forget that God is good, that God is always just, that God is always wise, that God is sovereign. We forget that even on our worst day of suffering, we don’t deserve better. We forget that God has been more gracious to us on our worst day of suffering than we have ever deserved on our best days. And we must never—and Heman does not do this here—we must never presume to judge God by our circumstances as though he has wronged us. In any circumstance, we know enough, precisely because he is the God of our salvation; in any circumstance, we know enough to honor him with the trust that he deserves.

So Heman’s afflictions continue, but so does his hope, and so does his trust. His heart remains steadfastly oriented toward God. However intense the suffering, God remains the center of his attention and the center of his hope. Recently, a pastor friend asked me—we’re having lunch, and he asked me, “How did you cope with that? Hearing your daughter’s suffering and her death.” And I said, “Well, I don’t know what to say, except I can give you my own experience.” Years ago, years ago in my ministry when I was young, it dawned on me that it became—it is the part of the pastor’s responsibility in his preaching ministry to prepare people for suffering. You will suffer. There’s no sense denying it. There’s no sense ignoring it. You will suffer. The alternative to that is you die soon. But given that exception, you’re going to suffer. And it is part of the pastor’s responsibility to prepare people for that. And I made it a regular point of application in my preaching, and a point of focus in my preaching as well, to relate our sufferings to God, to relate it to God and his sovereignty and his justice, and to show that God is never obliged to anyone for anything, and he’s never wrong when he allows suffering in the life of any of his people. He’s always done what is right, and none of us deserve any better.

Relate our suffering to God’s goodness and to God’s wisdom—that God always does what is right, he will never do us wrong; that he always does what is wise, and none of us should ever presume to think that we know better how to run this world or even our own life than what God does. And it was encouraging and has been encouraging from time to time to hear from people in the congregation going through suffering and express appreciation for what they’d learned about God and human suffering. And I remember one day it dawned on me, “You know, I’ve had kind of a charmed life. Things have been easy. It’s been good. I wonder when I’m going to need this stuff.” And what I told the man was that all I can tell you is that what’s important is to fortify your mind ahead of time with truths about God. Truths about God that are always true. And so you know ahead of time, when suffering comes, you are already aware that God is a sovereign God. He doesn’t owe anyone anything. He is a just God. He has not done me wrong. That God is too good ever to do me wrong. That God is too wise ever to make a mistake. And that God has already demonstrated his love to me in giving me his Son, I have no ground ever to question God’s goodness to me.

And so when suffering comes, we resolve that we’ll never accuse God falsely. We recall that God would never do us wrong. We keep and maintain the right perspective that our hope in Christ is not for this life only. And we resolve ahead of time, and we resolve afresh when suffering comes: “I will honor God with the trust that he deserves.” In fact, it’s good for us. Face it, it’s good for us when we are forced to wait upon God. That’s the word that’s used often in the Psalter: waiting on God. It’s the longest word, I think, in the entire Bible: wait. The suffering goes on, and it goes on. And we cry, and we pray, and we wait, and we wait, and we wait. Finally, all you can do is hug someone you love and sob. You wait. At the end of it, it’s good for us to have been reminded that we depend upon God for all things. And it’s good for us in every circumstance to be driven to look to Him afresh. And it will only confuse us—it will only confuse us if we assume that God must always resolve all of our problems now. It’s only going to confuse you. He’s under no obligation. He’s under no obligation to keep our calendar, our clock, and it only brings confusion to think that God must always resolve our problems in this life. Sometimes he does. Sometimes he does in measure. Sometimes he doesn’t.

We have the wonderful example of Job. Lost his children, his possessions, lost it all, went through that period of suffering. At the end of the story we have that wonderful section where it’s all restored and his possessions are great and he’s got more sons and daughters. And God has restored it for him. But I can tell you, but although he had more sons and daughters than he had before, his grief never ended. God doesn’t owe it. 1 Chronicles, there’s some hint that Heman’s faithfulness was rewarded in this life. Can’t be quite sure of the timing in all of this, but here, Psalm 88, he’s suffering. But in 1 Chronicles, we find that Heman is exalted by God, made a great leader of the people of Israel in their public praise and singing and worship before God, appointed by David as one of the heads of the temple choir, a music leader.

Big Picture

And in fact, we might learn something here from the editors of the Psalter as well. Remember, there are five books of the Psalter. You see that in the Psalms. The third book of the Psalter is Psalm 73 through Psalm 89. In this third book of the Psalter, it’s marked by lament. You remember this third book of the Psalms begins with Psalm 73 and Asaph’s confusion, how things seem to be so mismanaged. It continues; book three is marked by lament. We have Psalm 88, the dark psalm, the black sheep of the Psalter, and book three culminates in Psalm 89. A prolonged, a longer psalm, a prolonged lament. God’s promise to David seems to have collapsed altogether, reflecting the period of time when the Davidic dynasty had fallen and collapsed. And book three culminates with that in Psalm 89, which we’ll see in two weeks, lamenting that God’s promise seems to have fallen to the ground entirely.

And then we come to book four of the Psalter, which begins with Psalm 90. We have Moses, a Psalm of Moses, the only Psalm in the Psalter by Moses, the deliverer—a hint of hope. And more than a hint of it, when Moses begins his Psalm: “you have been our refuge forever, our eternal abiding place through all generations.” Psalm 91, a great messianic psalm. Psalm 92, the king expresses his trust in God. Psalm 93 to 99, we’ve got these so-called enthronement psalms—”Yahweh is king” psalms expressing the hope that the Davidic dynasty may have collapsed, but God is still king. This hope is still alive. And so the inspired editors are teaching us to look and to think in the big picture. This suffering is not the last stanza of the hymn.

In the canon, in the fuller revelation of the gospel that is given, we’re assured not only in book four and then five of the Psalter, but through the rest of the canon, we’re assured that God will come good on his promise. Ultimately, ultimately Heman’s plea is answered in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his cross, his resurrection, his ascension, and then his coming return as well. Consider again verse 10. Heman’s argument shows some lack of understanding that we might have at this point. But verse 10: “do you work wonders for the dead?” Well, yes, in fact, he does. He raises them from death to eternal life. Verse 10b: “do the departed rise up to praise you?” Yes, in fact they do, in resurrection glory. Verse 11: “is your steadfast love declared in the grave?” Yes, God’s steadfast love is declared in the grave and in loud notes in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his defeat of death. In Christ’s resurrection, we have the answer to his question. Death is destroyed, salvation secured, eternal life is ours. All of this may have been fuzzy for Heman, but for us, looking back at this, the answer’s clear.

In fact, Heman, in his deep sufferings, foreshadows, in fact, the Man of Sorrows himself, the Lord Jesus. In some Christian traditions, this psalm, Psalm 88, is part of the Good Friday liturgy. It shows insight to it. And those of us on this side of the gospel, of the revelation of the gospel in Christ, we hear echoes of this psalm even in the Gospels in their presentation of Jesus. Verse 18: Heman is not the only one who was abandoned by his friends. Verse 14: Heman is not the only one who asked God, “why do you hide your face from me?” You hear that? Where did we hear that? We hear that from the cross, don’t we? And it was not Heman ultimately, but the Lord Jesus who was abandoned by God and who suffered his wrath for him in place of sinners.

And then we’re reminded that these lament psalms are frequently in the New Testament placed on the lips of the Lord Jesus himself. And if we read this dark psalm, this black sheep of the psalter psalm, in its whole Bible context, we have to see it pointing us ahead to the Lord Jesus—abandoned by God, took the sin of the world to himself, secured salvation for all of his people, was raised from the dead in triumph over death, as our forerunner leading us into glory, ascending to the throne, where he rules over all, and then in his coming return, will bring all of this to a grand consummation. And then we read that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us then. How much of this Heman understood, how much he came to understand, I don’t know. However informed was his hope, ours in every circumstance remains bright and glorious because of our forerunner who has gone ahead of us. And in affliction of any kind, no matter how severe, no matter how long, we can view it all through the life and the death and the resurrection, the ascension and the coming return of the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore all of our sorrows and leads us all to glory. And in every circumstance, verse one, God remains the God of our salvation. And in every circumstance, we continue to look to Him in hope. Amen.

Our Father, we live in a fallen world. We live in a world that’s wrecked by sin. The marks of its fallenness are everywhere. You’ve given us in your word a sure guide to help us keep our minds and our hearts steady through it all in hope. Strengthen us. Strengthen us, your people, we pray with these great truths. Give us the kind of faith that you’ve called us to, a robust faith unaffected by circumstances, a faith that looks steady toward the Lord Jesus in all that we have and all that we will have in him. We ask in his name. Amen.