Calling to God from the Depths

IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Calling to God from the Depths

Date: Jan. 26, 2022

Passage

Psalm 88:1-18 (ESV)

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

1   O LORD, God of my salvation,
    I cry out day and night before you.
2   Let my prayer come before you;
    incline your ear to my cry!
3   For my soul is full of troubles,
    and my life draws near to Sheol.
4   I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
    I am a man who has no strength,
5   like one set loose among the dead,
    like the slain that lie in the grave,
  like those whom you remember no more,
    for they are cut off from your hand.
6   You have put me in the depths of the pit,
    in the regions dark and deep.
7   Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
    and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8   You have caused my companions to shun me;
    you have made me a horror to them.
  I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.
  Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
    I spread out my hands to you.
10   Do you work wonders for the dead?
    Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11   Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12   Are your wonders known in the darkness,
    or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13   But I, O LORD, cry to you;
    in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14   O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
    Why do you hide your face from me?
15   Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
    I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16   Your wrath has swept over me;
    your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17   They surround me like a flood all day long;
    they close in on me together.
18   You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
    my companions have become darkness.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

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Daily Bread

Key Verse: 88:13

But I, O LORD, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.

The Psalms show us the full range of human emotion and experience, expressed to God in prayer. The writer of this psalm is at one of the lowest points of life, feeling near death and seeing nothing but darkness all around because of his troubles (3). These verses well describe what Jesus himself must have been going through on the cross.

The greatness of the psalmist is that he does not give in to despair but keeps crying out to God. He attributes his sufferings to God’s own wrath lying upon him (7). Nonetheless, his appeal is still to God, whom he will not let go of until the end. The writer seems not to know of hope in the resurrection. But we can know that in Jesus, even after death, our spirits will rise up and praise God (10). So, if the psalmist who went through all these things did not give up crying out to God, day after day, how can we think of giving up? If things are so bad that all we can do is cling to God, then let us cling to God.

Prayer: Prayer: Father, thank you that when I have nothing else and see only darkness all around, I can appeal to you in prayer. Thank you for your love in Christ that is more powerful than the grave.

One Word: One Word: I cry to God for help

A Plague of Hungry Locusts

Joel 1:1-20

Key Verse: 1:4

  What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
  What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten,
  and what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.

Today's Question

What are we specifically taught in the first commandment by the words before me?

See answer and references