psalm 88 - a sad psalm - 26th week tuesday 2016
So why is it that such a dreary psalm made its way in
the bible, why is it that this pessimistic, seemingly hopeless psalm be
accepted as one of the psalms, one of the prayers of the church, a model
prayer? Why? Because sometimes in our life we have to
approach God in darkness. Sometimes we also
come to God in the dark.
The psalmist says that his life is full of troubles,
he was going down into the bottom of pit into the dark abyss, he is without
strength; he feels counted as one in the grave, as one nobody remembers, as one
no one cares for. The sorrow is so
overwhelming that even the Fathers of the Church would say that this psalm is
the prayer of Jesus when he was in his passion in Gethsemane and on the cross
when he too experienced darkness. In Gethsemane Jesus said “My soul
is sorrowful even to death. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass
from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.” And on the cross he said “My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
If this prayer found its way to the models of prayers it is because
we can come to God this way, we can still approach God in our darkness in times
when we feel he is no longer there, when we feel he no longer listens, when we
feel we are totally abandoned. We can
come to God in our darkness, we can still worship even in the dark because God
is not afraid of the dark.
Let us then be brave like Jesus who in the gospel was resolute to
face his suffering in Jerusalem even when he already knew the passion and death
he had to undergo there. He was resolute
because he believed that the Father will raise him up on the third day. Even in darkness we believe too like Jesus
that there is light at the end of the tunnel though it may not be apparent for
now.
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