Psalms 88

LORD, you are the God who saves me. I have cried out to you day and night.

1O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

Note"The God who saves me" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning the God who rescues from danger, illness or death, deliverance in this life, not a statement about the afterlife.

2Let my prayer reach you. Turn your ear toward my cry for help.

2Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

3My soul is full of troubles, and my life is coming close to the grave.

3For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

Note"The grave" here renders the Hebrew word Sheol, the underworld where all the dead were thought to go, good and bad alike, a dim, silent place below the earth, not a place of punishment.

4People count me with those going down into the pit. I am like a man with no strength left.

4I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

Note"The pit" is another Hebrew name for the realm of the dead, drawn from the image of a deep cistern or grave-shaft. To be "counted with" those going down into it means being written off as good as dead.

5I am left alone among the dead, like bodies of the killed who lie in a grave. You do not remember them anymore, and they are cut off from your care.

5Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

NoteThe King James "free among the dead" is puzzling in English; the Hebrew word can mean set loose or released (as a slave is released from service) and so, here, cut adrift and abandoned, left among the dead with no claim on anyone. "Cut off from your care" is literally "cut off from your hand," the hand standing for God's active help.

6You have put me in the lowest pit, in dark places, deep down.

6Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

NoteThe lowest pit, the darkness and the depths are all names for the underworld of the dead; "the depths" also carries the sense of deep water, which leads into the waves of the next verse.

7Your anger presses hard on me, and you have brought all your waves crashing over me. Selah.

7Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

NoteSelah is a Hebrew term found throughout the Psalms whose meaning is no longer known. It was probably a musical or performance direction (a pause, or a cue to the instruments), rather than part of the words being sung.

8You have taken my friends far away from me. You have made me someone they cannot stand to be near. I am shut in and cannot get out.

8Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

NoteThe King James "abomination" is the language of ritual impurity: the speaker has become something others must keep away from, as they would keep away from a contagious disease or a corpse. Contact would leave them unfit to join in worship.

9My eyes are worn out from all this suffering. LORD, I call on you every day. I hold out my hands to you.

9Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

NoteHolding out or spreading the hands, palms up, was the ordinary posture for prayer in ancient Israel, the way kneeling or folded hands are today.

10Do you do wonders for dead people? Do the dead stand up and praise you? Selah.

10Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.

NoteThe word behind "the dead" in the second question is a distinct Hebrew term (rephaim), meaning the shades or ghosts of the dead, the weak, shadowy remnants of people thought to linger in the underworld. The questions expect the answer no: the dead were understood to be beyond both God's wonders and the praise God's living worshipers offer.

11Does anyone speak about your faithful love in the grave? Does anyone speak about how faithful you are in the place of ruin?

11Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

Note"Faithful love" renders hesed, a Hebrew word for loyal, committed kindness, the steady goodwill owed within a close relationship. "The place of ruin" translates Abaddon, meaning "destruction," which was used as another name for the realm of the dead.

12Are your wonders known in the dark? Is your justice known in the land where everything is forgotten?

12Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

Note"The land where everything is forgotten" is again the world of the dead, imagined as a place where the dead are forgotten by the living and themselves forget.

13But I have cried out to you, LORD. In the morning my prayer comes before you.

13But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

NoteWhere the King James says the prayer will "prevent" God, the 1611 sense of that word was to come before or go out to meet, the opposite of what "prevent" means today. The prayer arrives at first light, before anything else.

14LORD, why do you push me away? Why do you hide your face from me?

14LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

NoteTo "hide your face" is a standard Hebrew idiom for withdrawing attention and favor, like a person turning away and refusing to look at someone. It does not suggest God has a face that can be concealed.

15I have been suffering and close to death since I was young. While I carry the terrors you send, I do not know what to do.

15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

NoteThe King James "distracted" does not mean inattentive; in 1611 it meant driven out of one's mind, at the end of one's wits, closer to "desperate."

16Your burning anger has swept over me. The terrors you send have destroyed me.

16Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

17All day long they surround me like flood water. They close in on me from every side.

17They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

18You have taken my loved one and my friend far from me, and the people I know are lost in the darkness.

18Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

NoteThe Hebrew of the last line is ambiguous and translators divide over it: it can mean that the people the speaker knows have been taken away into the darkness, or that darkness itself is now the only acquaintance he has left. The word for "loved one" covers a close companion or family member, not specifically a spouse.