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Have you ever prayed and prayed, and your prayers weren’t answered? Felt depressed ‑ not for a day, not for a week, but for months, maybe years? If you have ever experienced a season like that, or if you are living through one now, this darkest of all the psalms was written for you.

For the choir director: A psalm of the descendants of Korach. A song to be sung to the tune “Machalat L’ah-note – The Suffering of Affliction.” A psalm of Heman the Ezrahite.

We are not certain of the meaning of “Ezrahite.” However, we do know about the descendants of Korach. Korach was the Levite who led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. His judgment was swift. The Earth opened and swallowed Korach along with his household. Yet in Numbers 26, Moses tells us that the sons of Korach did not die that day. That brief statement becomes the beginning of a remarkable story of redemption. Generations later, the descendants of Korach became gatekeepers, musicians and worship leaders in Israel. The family once associated with rebellion against God’s house became the guardians of God’s house. What an wonderful example of God’s redeeming grace. The failures of previous generations do not determine our future.

Heman was one of the greatest men in Israel. He served as one of David’s chief musicians, helping lead the worship of the Mishkan ‑ the Tabernacle. He was also a prophet, one of the very few men in history who God spoke to in a very clear way. He was also renowned for his wisdom. In fact, when the Word of God describes Solomon’s extraordinary wisdom, it says that Solomon was wiser than Heman. That comparison only makes sense because Heman was recognized as a man of exceptional wisdom.

Heman was a gifted worship leader, a prophet and one of the wisest men of his generation ‑ yet the psalm he wrote describes intense suffering, loneliness, sadness and the feeling that God has abandoned him. This teaches us that great faith and great sorrow can co‑exist in the same person. Sometimes God’s greatest servants walk through the darkest valleys.

Psalm 88 was set to music called “Machalat L’ah-note” a kind of music associated with suffering. We don’t know what the melody sounded like, but the title is fitting for this psalm ‑ a song born out of profound suffering.

The psalm begins with, O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night. Now hear my prayer; listen to my cry. Before Heman writes a single word about his suffering, he acknowledges the Lord as Elohay Yeshua‑tee, “the God of my yeshua, the God of my salvation.” He does not merely call the Lord “the God of salvation.” He says, “the God of my salvation.” This is the language of a close, personal relationship with the living God. There is a huge difference between knowing about God, having an academic knowledge about God, knowing facts about God – and really knowing God.

Is that you? Are you experiencing a close personal relationship with the living God? Can you honestly say, “I know that the Lord is the God of my salvation?”

The Hebrew word translated salvation is yeshua. It means rescue, deliverance or help. Heman believes that if salvation is going to come, it must come from God. He is praying to the only One who can save him. And of course the ultimate and greatest salvation comes through Yeshua – the Messiah and the one only Savior of humanity, saving us from the things that we could never save ourselves from – the control of Satan and demons, sin and our sin nature, and death and Hell.

Heman is crying out day and night. He is not praying a few prayers in a moment of desperation, but prayers prayed repeatedly and persistently. Yet God’s help has not come.

Next, Heman describes his pitiable condition. For my life is full of troubles, and death draws near. I am as good as dead, like a strong man with no strength left. They have left me among the dead, and I lie like a corpse in a grave. Heman’s life is full of troubles. He is weak. He has no strength. He’s like a man who has been wounded in battle and left on the battlefield because it looks like he’s dead. He’s close to death, like a man put in a grave before he’s actually dead.

Heman continues describing his pitiable condition but adds another element: He tells the Lord that He is responsible for his suffering, that He has done this to him. I am forgotten, cut off from your care. You have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths. Your anger weighs me down; with wave after wave you have engulfed me. You have driven my friends away by making me repulsive to them.

I am forgotten, cut off from your care. Heman feels that the Lord has forgotten him, that He may have cared for him before but the Lord no longer does.

You have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths. Heman feels as if God has thrown him down into the lowest possible place, a place of utter darkness, despair and hopelessness.

Your anger weighs me down. He feels like God is angry with him and has put a heavy weight on him so that he can’t lift himself out of his misery.

With wave after wave you have engulfed me. He feels like a man on a ship who has fallen overboard, with wave over wave crashing over him. Before he can recover from one wave, another wave crashes over him so its impossible for him to recover.

You have driven my friends away by making me repulsive to them. His friends who were close to him and cared for him have rejected him, and he feels friendless and completely alone.

Heman continues describing his pitiable situation. I am in a trap with no way of escape. He feels like an animal caught in a trap, unable to free itself and waiting helplessly for death.

My eyes are blinded by my tears. He has been crying so much he can barely see.

Each day I beg for your help. He has been praying day after day for God to help him, but there’s been no response. Heaven is silent.

Heman descriptions of his pain and suffering and his pitiable condition are designed to evoke God’s compassion and mercy, so that He will intervene and end Heman’s suffering.

Heman now asks the Lord a series of questions, which are designed to motivate God to help him. Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead? Do the dead rise up and praise you? Can those in the grave declare your love? Can they proclaim your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds? Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness?

Before the arrival of Messiah, Sheol was the place where the souls of the righteous and the wicked went when they died. Heman describes it as a place of destruction, darkness and forgetfulness. Souls in Sheol are not able to praise the Lord like people do on Earth. So Heman’s argument is: If you keep me alive, I will be able to continue praising You in the land of the living – and that will add to Your honor and glory. How can you not want that?

He makes a statement about his intention to pray persistently until he gets an answer, followed by two questions designed to motivate the Lord to help him. O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day. O Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn your face from me?

Heman tells the Lord that he has been asking Him for help and he intends to continue asking the Lord for help until He answers. There is something about persistent asking that motivates us to respond. Yeshua taught this in the parable about the widow and the unjust judge.

I’ve had experience with this in my own life – and I know it works. When my daughter Aliza was in second or third grade, she wanted a dog. She kept asking me for a dog. “Daddy can I have a dog?” I kept saying, “No,” but she refused to give up. She prayed every night for a dog. She regularly wrote in her school journal about wanting a dog, so much so that her teacher called Martha and said, “You’ve got to get this girl a dog.” Aliza kept asking and asking for a dog until … I finally gave in.

After telling the Lord that he has been praying and intends to continue praying for His help, he asks two questions designed to appeal to God’s heart and motivate him to act: Why do You reject me? Why do You turn Your face from me? Heman is saying, “Lord, I keep calling to You because I believe You hear me. Yet Your silence makes me feel as though You have rejected me and turned away from me. But I know that is not who You are.” Heman is putting God in a position to answer, “I am not rejecting you. I have not turned My face from you. I hear your cries for help and I will answer.”

Heman continues laying out the depth of his suffering and pitiable condition, hoping to move the Lord to respond with mercy and compassion. I have been sick and close to death since my youth. Heman’s troubles have not lasted for a few days or months but for most of his life. Doesn’t the God who is good and full of love for His creatures want to give him a little relief in his life? Wouldn’t that be the just and right thing to do?

I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors. Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me. Your terrors have paralyzed me. They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long. They have engulfed me completely. Heman tells the Lord that He is responsible the trials God has allowed him to experience, which have left him feeling overwhelmed, paralyzed, terrorized and helpless, like a man caught in floodwaters from which he can’t escape. When we see a helpless individual being carried away in floodwaters, we want to help him. Isn’t the same true of God?

You have taken away my companions and loved ones. Heman sees his painful isolation as ultimately being under the Lord’s sovereign control. His friends and loved ones are gone, leaving him completely alone. If the Lord has allowed this isolation to happen, shouldn’t He also be willing to intervene and relieve it? Is it really too much to ask of a God who is both great and loving, and who has unlimited resources, to restore some companionship to a man who is suffering so deeply?

But not all of his friends have left him. Darkness is my closest friend. Darkness represents grief, his loneliness, his confusion and the painful absence of God’s comforting presence. The people Heman loves have disappeared. But something remains – darkness. He has lived with it for so long that it has become familiar. It’s always there. It’s the one thing he can count on.

That’s the end of Psalm 88. There is no answer from Heaven, no divine intervention, no declaration of hope and victory. The psalm simply ends in darkness. What a depressing way to end a psalm.

Why? What does God want us to learn from this darkest psalm?

Hope Is Hidden Beneath the Surface: Psalm 88 appears to contain no hope. Yet Heman believes God exists, hears, and rules over life and death. He believes prayer matters, otherwise, he would have stopped praying. Psalm 88 is a song that was used for worship. Heman takes his anguish, his sense that God has abandoned him and turns it into a song used to worship God.

Psalm 88 Recognizes God’s Sovereignty Over Every Aspect Of Life: Heman understands that nothing has happened to him apart from God’s will. He can’t explain God’s purposes, but he knows his suffering is not outside God’s control. His circumstances have affected his emotions, but they have not destroyed his confidence that God remains sovereign over every aspect of his life – including his suffering.

God’s People Sometimes Experience Long Periods of Darkness: Some teach that if you trust God enough, suffering will quickly disappear. Heman tells us he has suffered since his youth. God included Psalm 88 so the faithful enduring chronic illness, birth defects, grief, depression, loneliness or unanswered prayer would know they are not alone. Until Yeshua returns, there will always be those who are living their own Psalm 88.

God Wants Suffering Believers To Be Honest: The psalmist is suffering but does not pretend everything is fine. Faith is not pretending to be happy. God wants us to let Him know that we are sad, depressed, overwhelmed, discouraged, feeling far from Him. None of this, “Never speak a negative confession because if you say something negative it will ll turn into reality.” Blessed are those who mourn.

Keep Praying When God Seems Silent: He keeps praying day after day, even though the answer never comes. Faith continues to cry out to “the God of my salvation” even when Heaven seems silent. Trust God to say no to your prayers, or answer your prayers in His time and His way.

Faith Is Greater Than Feelings: Even though he is suffering and feels like God is not helping him, Heman calls God “the God of my salvation.” That’s faith. Feelings are not always reliable interpreters of reality. One of the battles of the spiritual life is learning to distinguish between what we feel and what is true. We live by faith not by sight, we live by faith not by feelings.

Psalm 88 Points Us to Yeshua: Heman was a man overwhelmed by sorrow, but Yeshua was truly “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Heman experienced rejection, loneliness and the loss of his companions. Yeshua was rejected and abandoned by those closest to Him.

Heman cried out to God in his anguish, asking why God had hidden His face from him. Yeshua cried from the cross, “My God My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Heman speaks of being like one who has been put into the grave. Yeshua actually died and was placed in the grave.

Heman’s final words are, “Darkness is my closest friend.” Yeshua experienced the deepest darkness – but emerged in resurrection light.

Some of you may be living your own Psalm 88 right now. Maybe it’s an illness. Financial stress. Feeling alone like you don’t have a friend in the world. Maybe it’s a marriage that feels hopeless, a grief that will not end, or a prayer you have prayed for years without an answer.

If that’s you, keep crying out to Him day and night, even when He seems silent. Keep calling Him “the God of my salvation.” And remember that the God who let His Son enter the deepest darkness of all is the same God who is with you in yours. He has not abandoned you, even if it feels that way. Hold on to Him. If you do, darkness will not have the last word.

Let’s pray:

Lord, You are the God of our salvation. When we walk through seasons of darkness, loneliness, grief and unanswered prayer, help us keep crying out to You. When You seem silent and our feelings tell us You have abandoned us, remind us that You are still sovereign, loving and faithful. Give us courage to be honest with You about our pain and strength to continue trusting You when we can’t understand Your purposes. Help us distinguish between what we feel and what is true. And remind us over and over that Yeshua entered the deepest darkness, conquered death and rose again. May we never stop praying, trusting and hoping in You.