Read Psalm 88:10-18. 10Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? 11Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? 12Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 14O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? 15Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless. 16Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me. 17They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together. 18You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.
No rescue comes. No remembering occurs. No hope is found.
But there is hope in psalm 88, maybe not in its words, but in its very existence. Why would God allow a song that never praises him, never trusts him, never remembers him, to exist? Because God desires our deepest vulnerability and our total honesty. He wants us to bring our hopelessness to him, even when it feels like he is the source.
You see, the hope of Psalm 88 is not found in its answers, but in its questions, especially the questions of verse 12 – Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? These questions will find their answer in the cross of Christ. Yes, God’s wonders are known in the darkness. Yes, his righteousness is known in his forgetfulness. Jesus’ darkness is the wonder of our salvation. Jesus forgotten is our righteousness.
Jesus had to let his hopelessness be for others in order for it to have any kind of meaning. Jesus let darkness be his only friend so that he might bring many sons to glory. Our union with the cross of Christ allows us to do the same. To live is Christ is often to live in the darkness of the crucified life, the darkness of embracing the hopelessness of this life in order to sacrifice for others for the next – death at work in us so that life might be at work in them (2 Cor. 4:12).
You: Are you living in darkness today? Do you feel hopeless?
You in Christ: How does our union with Christ and his cross answer the dark questions of this psalm?
Christ in you: Have you ever talked to God like the psalmist does here in Psalm 88? Are you able to be vulnerable with God today?
Pray: Father, I bring my darkness to you so that I might live within it with purpose. Use my hopelessness in this life to bring hope to others. Amen.
To Live is Christ 