Psalm 88

Commonplace –

“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” (Psalm 88:1-3).

Matthew Henry points out that Psalm 88 “is a lamentation, one of the most melancholy of all the psalms; and it does not conclude, as usually the melancholy psalms do, with the least intimation of comfort or joy, but, from first to last, it is mourning and woe” (Henry 465). So, why read such a mournful psalm? Henry points out that “[t]hose who are in trouble of mind may sing this psalm feelingly” (465), meaning that, if your heart is troubled, this psalm can be sung as a cry to the Lord, joining your voice to the voices of the past, who also experienced troubled hearts. But, as Henry points out, those who are not troubled “ought to sing [this psalm] thankfully, blessing God that it is not their case” (Henry 465).

In regard to the opening verses, Henry notes,

“The very first words of this psalm are the only words of comfort and support in all the psalm. There is nothing about [the psalmist] but clouds and darkness; but, before he begins his complaint, he calls God the God of his salvation, which intimates both that he looked for salvation, bad as things were, and that he looked up to God for the salvation and depended upon him to be the author of it” (Henry 465).

This is helpful to consider as we travel our own road of sanctification.

Further on, Henry notes,

“Inward trouble is the sorest trouble, and that which, sometimes, the best of God’s saints and servants have been severely excercised with. The spirit of man, of the greatest of men, will not always sustain his infirmity, but will droop and sink under it; who then can bear a wounded spirit?” (Henry 465).

Henry connects this sorrow with that of Christ.

“[The psalmist] was a man of sorrows, and therefore some make him, in this psalm, a type of Christ, whose complaints on the cross, and sometimes before, were much to the same purport with this psalm. He cries out (v.3): My soul is full of troubles, so Christ said, Now is my soul troubled” (Henry 465).

Yet, we are not to forsake prayer.

“My eye mourneth by reason of affliction. Sometimes giving vent to grief by weeping gives some ease to a troubled spirit. Yet weeping must not hinder praying; we must sow in tears: My eye mourns but I cry unto thee daily. Let prayers and tears go together, and they shall be accepted together. I have heard thy prayers, I have seen thy tears” (Henry 465).

Works Cited

Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 88.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

© 2025 Angela Hormberg