BLUE SUNDAY
Opening Prayer
Lord, I know how to be sorrowful too.
Read PSALM 88
Psalm 88[a]
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. For the director of music. According to mahalath leannoth.[b] A maskil[c] of Heman the Ezrahite.
1 Lord, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
2 May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.
3 I am overwhelmed with troubles
and my life draws near to death.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like one without strength.
5 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.
6 You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.
7 Your wrath lies heavily on me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.[d]
8 You have taken from me my closest friends
and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;
9 my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to you, Lord, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise you?
11 Is your love declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Destruction[e]?
12 Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
13 But I cry to you for help, Lord;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 Why, Lord, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?
15 From my youth I have suffered and been close to death;
I have borne your terrors and am in despair.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.
17 All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.
18 You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
darkness is my closest friend.
Footnotes:
a Psalm 88:1 In Hebrew texts 88:1-18 is numbered 88:2-19.
b Psalm 88:1 Title: Possibly a tune, “The Suffering of Affliction”
c Psalm 88:1 Title: Probably a literary or musical term
d Psalm 88:7 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 10.
e Psalm 88:11 Hebrew Abaddon
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Pour out your feelings to God, just as you are. Don’t try to make them “religious” or “Christian” or “respectable”.
Think Further
I am writing this on what has been called ‘Blue Monday’, the third Monday in January, a day with the bogus claim to being the most depressing day of the year.
This is the one psalm in the Psalter with not a single ray of hope. No vow of praise once things get better, no hope that they will get better, no affirmation of faith, no praise for who the God who can turn things around. Everything is dark. The author does not specify exactly what his troubles are, though verse 15 suggests an incurable illness. He has been abandoned by his friends and feels abandoned by God. The musical key of this psalm might as well be E flat minor, the most mournful of all the musical keys.
Why does such a litany of hopelessness sit in our Bibles? Because feelings like this are part of the human experience. Today’s psalm validates those feelings and gives words to those who find themselves in despair. The very lack of hope in the psalm can be useful in times like these. Well-meaning friends who come to cheer us up, bringing Bible verses and assurances that things aren’t really that bad may only make matters worse. There are times when all we need is to be heard. C.S. Lewis wrote A Grief Observed when his wife died. E.M. Blaiklock wrote Kathleen. Both testify that nothing said to them during their grief was of any help at all. “There are tears of things” wrote Virgil (“Sunt lacrimae rerum”; Virgil, Aeneid, 1.462). Sometimes we experience depression for no discernible reason at all. The psalmist does the right thing. He pours out his soul before God. We can be grateful to him for writing it down. Jesus was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa 53:3, AV). He understands. He has been there.
Apply
If this is you, rewrite this psalm filling in your own details. If this describes someone you know, think how you can best pray for them and help them.
Closing prayer
Lord, thank You for understanding when I am at my lowest and simply can’t pull myself up just yet.
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