Do you feel like darkness is your 'closest friend'?

Near the end of Book Three in Psalms (which is from Pss. 73–89), things grow dark. In fact, when you enter Psalm 88, you feel like you’re in a room so dark that you can’t see your hand in front of your face.

Suffering can feel like that. Some trials feel so overwhelming, so disorienting, that the language of Psalm 88 fits them. The psalmist embodies the agonies and despair that a believer can experience in a fallen world. Don’t let anyone tell you that a real believer would never feel overwhelmed and despondent. Psalm 88 would beg to differ!

Psalm 88 has been called the darkest song in the Psalter. It’s been called the bleakest, saddest prayer in the whole book. If you read the 18 verses of this psalm, you might be inclined to agree.

The writer describes his soul as absolutely full of troubles (Ps. 88v3). He feels near death (88v3–4) and without any strength or favour (88v4–5). The sorrows of the psalmist are deepened by the fact of isolation: “You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them” (88v8).

In times of suffering, the presence and comfort of others can bear us up. But the experience of the psalmist has not been like that. Even at the end of the psalm, he reiterates his isolation: “You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me” (Ps. 88v18).

The last line of the psalm is especially sobering: “My companions have become darkness” (ESV). The way to probably understand this is that he is saying, “Darkness is my companion.”

Readers of earlier psalms would expect that, at some point (and likely near the end), there would be a turn of language in Psalm 88. There would be a renewed conviction, even a rejoicing in divine deliverance or a confident hope that rescue was on the way. But Psalm 88 doesn’t end with bright hope. The last word of the psalm is “darkness.”

Darkness. The word is a figurative depiction of the writer’s feelings of hopelessness. It is a one-word description of his emotional state and of his bleak circumstances.

Keep something in mind, though. “Darkness” may be the last word of this psalm, but “darkness” doesn’t get the last word in your life. The Lord is the one who said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1v3). He is the one who stills the winds and subdues the waves. He is the God of wonders, the God of grace and mercy. He is the one who parted the Red Sea and the Jordan River.

The psalmist rightly began his prayer in Psalm 88 like this: “O LORD, God of my salvation…” (Ps. 88v1). The sufferer is transparent about his weakness and fear and despair, and he turns to the “God of my salvation,” because, truly, God is the rock and help and hope of his people.

Christ is the bread of life, he has living water to give, and he is the light of the world. Christ the Light is our unfailing hope in the dark. We pray by faith and not by sight. We sing by faith and not by sight. And we pray and sing in the dark, not just in the light. We might not be able to see our hand in front of our face in the valley of despair, but this valley is not the end. Furthermore, the Lord is with us always, never forsaking or overlooking his people. He is mighty to save, working all things for the everlasting good of his people.

Walking in the darkness of suffering, we can trust the Lord who said, “I am the light.”

Psalm 88 (NIV)

A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. For the director of music. According to mahalath leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

Lord, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.

I am overwhelmed with troubles
and my life draws near to death.
I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like one without strength.
I am set apart with the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
who are cut off from your care.

You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.
Your wrath lies heavily on me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
You have taken from me my closest friends
and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;
my eyes are dim with grief.

I call to you, Lord, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.
Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise you?
Is your love declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Destruction?
Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

But I cry to you for help, Lord;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Why, Lord, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?

From my youth I have suffered and been close to death;
I have borne your terrors and am in despair.
Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.
All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.
You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
darkness is my closest friend.

This piece has been re-published by en with permission from Mitch. It was first published on Mitch's blog: mitchchase.substack.com