Psalm 88 spoke to me the other day...but not in a way that made me say, "ah, yeah I've been there, I know that feeling." I haven't been there. Sure, in my life, I've had my share of hard times, and I've had seasons where I felt discouraged and hopeless...but not to the point where I feel like God has forgotten me. I have never experienced something where I could quote the second part of verse 5, "I am forgotten, cut off from your care". I'm scared that there will be a day where I will face feeling like that...but what's interesting is the fact that where Psalm 88 is the voice of someone in pain crying out to God, Psalm 89:1-18 describes characteristics of God: God's love, faithfulness, promises, might and power. The Psalm opens with praise that God's love is unfailing. Psalm 89:1 "I will sing of the Lord's unfailing love forever! Verses 14-15 say this:
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Unfailing love and truth walk before you as attendants. Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord.
Further on in Psalm 89, it talks about God's promise to David in verse 22 & 24, "His enemies will not defeat him, nor will the wicked overpower him...my faithfulness and unfailing love will be with him, and by my authority he will grow in power." Finally, towards the end, the Psalm goes into crying out in pain to God in verse 50: "Consider Lord, how your servants are disgraced! I carry in my heart the insults of so many people." Yet, the end of the Psalm still says in verse 32 "Praise the Lord forever!" Things don't have to be good before we can praise God. We can praise Him even when we're struggling. It takes a change of heart, but that is something God can work on if we just submit our hearts to Him.
I know it was not a coincidence that these two Psalms are back to back...and the uplifting words come after a psalm full of pain and sadness. After all, when something goes wrong, we it's easy to forget all the stuff that's gone right. Tough circumstances seem to overshadow the good. We need to be reminded of God's goodness and faithfulness when storms come into our lives.
That's not to say that you won't ever face adversity with hope and strength...I'm not saying that at all. But when problems in life start to take us down, we have hope and strength from God to lift us back up.
I pray that if there comes a time where I do feel like Psalm 88, that I also remember to read Psalm 89.
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