I invite you to turn with me to our sermon text, which is Psalm 88 today. Psalm 88, we are making our way through the third book of the Psalter, and we're nearing the end of that book. This is the second to last book, Psalm in book three. It's found on page 494 in the Pew Bible. Psalm 88, hear the word of the Lord. Oh Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the pit. I am a man who has no strength, 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. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me. and You overwhelm me with all Your ways. 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. My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon You, O Lord. I spread out my hands to You. Do You work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But I, O Lord, cry to you. In the morning my prayer comes before you, O Lord. Why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors. I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me. Your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long. They close in on me together. You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. My companions have become darkness. Thus far the reading of God's holy and inspired word and all God's people said, Amen. As I was reading this psalm and studying it this week, I was reminded of a lecture that Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century Baptist pastor, delivered to ministers in training. And in that lecture he spoke of depression. And he said this, he said, fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy. There may be here and there men of iron, to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these. And as for ordinary men, the Lord knows and makes them to know that they are but dust." Well, Charles Spurgeon knew about the subject of depression firsthand because he struggled with depression all throughout his life. Now you may not experience depression in the clinical sense. Some people do, some Christians do, but some do not. But the bottom line is you are going to experience depressing things in your life. There are going to be times in your life when you're downhearted and when you're disconsolate. And a time may even come when you're going through what the old writers used to refer to as the dark night of the soul, and you can't see any light on the horizon. And this is what makes Psalm 88 so very precious, so uniquely precious to us as God's people. This is the psalm for the times when all you can see is darkness. Psalm 88 is the darkest of all of the lament psalms. In almost all of the other laments, there is a turning point. Even in Psalm 22, the psalm that Jesus quotes as he's dying on the cross, remember how that begins? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Even in that psalm, there is a turning. And there is hope and an expression of faith at the end. But in Psalm 88, there is no turning point. Instead of ending on a note of hope, or at least on a note of triumphant faith, instead Psalm 88 ends with this statement. My companions have become darkness. It could be translated, my only friends are darkness. This psalm is somber. This psalm is cheerless. I heard one preacher say that if you wanted, as a minister, to come up with a three-point sermon outline for this psalm, you really, in order to be honest, you would need to have it say something like this. Point number one, misery. Point number two, more misery. Point number three, even more misery. And you know, I wouldn't argue with that, but I do think that the major sections of this psalm, as it's broken down in the ESV in paragraphs here, or stanzas, I do think that they do place an emphasis upon different aspects of the psalmist's misery. And that does help us a little bit in outlining the psalm. And so, that being the case, Psalm 88, as we study it today, we're gonna study it under three headings, and it's provided for you in your bulletin, the sermon outline. Point number one, the misery of feeling overwhelmed. Point number two, the misery of feeling trapped. And point number three, the misery of feeling alone. So those three ideas, being overwhelmed, being trapped, and being alone. So the first seven verses really focus in on the misery of feeling overwhelmed. The psalmist begins by crying out to God for help. He says, Oh Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. And really that line is the brightest line in the entire psalm. That line is really what makes Psalm 88 a cry of faith. Now it's true that really the rest of the psalm is a complaint, it's really an expression of misery, but the fact that God is the one who is being addressed here, that is what makes all the difference in the world. This is not a matter of mere grumbling. It's not a matter of murmuring against God. This is a prayer to God. In spite of the sore trial that this believer is experiencing, and you notice that he is named in the title that's attached to this psalm, Haman the Ezraite, who was involved in the production of music in the temple. But in spite of this sore trial and this misery that he's going through, he looks to God. He cries out to God as his only hope of deliverance. He calls God the God of my salvation. And John Calvin is helpful on this. In his comments on this verse, he calls our attention to the rarity of this kind of faith. Listen to what Calvin says. He says, it's common for all men to complain when under the pressure of grief. And he's right about that, you know? We do complain, don't we? But they are far from pouring out their groanings before God. Instead of this, the majority of mankind seek seclusion, that they may murmur against God and accuse Him of undue severity, while others pour forth their cries into the air at random. And we like to complain. We do complain a lot. But how often do we complain to God? How often do we bring our complaint to Him? To the throne of grace where we can find grace to help in time of need. The fact that the troubled soul who wrote this psalm cried out in desperation to the Lord is instructive for us in several ways. I just want to briefly mention them. First of all, this affirms that believers sometimes experience unrelieved suffering. And this may cause us to feel abandoned by God. You know, the psalm ends on this very negative note. And I think that the Lord has been gracious to us in providing us with such a psalm. This psalm also teaches us that it's legitimate for us to express our feelings to God when we're distressed, to bring our complaint to Him. And third, it also shows us that we shouldn't look for deliverance by turning inward. We should look for deliverance by crying out to the Lord. So we begin now to look at the misery that's described in this psalm. And as the psalmist begins to describe his overwhelming misery, he says, my soul is full of troubles." Now the word that's translated by the ESV as full is significant. It's worth pondering here because typically when this Hebrew word is used in the Psalms, it's translated as satisfied. And usually it's used in a context where the psalmist is talking about being satisfied by God's blessings. Let me give you an example, Psalm 65 verse 4, it says, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple. He's saying we shall be full, we'll be filled up. by the goodness of your house. The word satisfied in this kind of context brings to mind that wonderful sensation that you have after you've eaten a really good meal. And maybe had just a little bit too much, right? You're full. You're satisfied. You can't eat another bite. Your appetite has been fully sated. Well, in Psalm 88, it's troubles. Not blessings that have filled up this man's soul. He has a belly full of troubles. He can't see how he has any more room for misery. Now in the remainder of this first section, the psalmist describes his condition by essentially saying that he's as good as dead. That's how overwhelmed he is. He's been so utterly weakened by the onslaught of the troubles that have just kept crashing over him that it seems like he has no more strength than a person who's already in the grave. That's his comparison here. But he even goes further than that. Or at least there's indications that he's going further than just talking about mere death. He refers to the departed as those whom God remembers no more. as those who've been cut off from God's hand. Now, in saying this, the psalmist is not denying the teaching that's found elsewhere in the Psalms and elsewhere in the Bible that says that God never abandons His people. He will not abandon His people to shale. He will not abandon us when we go to our graves. If we are believers in Jesus Christ in a mysterious way, Though our souls are separated from our bodies and go to reside with Christ in glory, our bodies are still united to Christ, even as they lay in their graves. But what the writer is doing here, he's not denying that, he's speaking phenomenologically. He's speaking from the standpoint of the way things appear to him, the way things feel to him at this particular point in his experience. The crisis that he's going through, it seems, is even causing him to wonder if his lot may be with the wicked in hell. And that's why he says, your wrath, lies heavy upon me." Well, there is some truth in the saying, misery loves company, right? There's a sort of comfort to be found in the fact that the writer of this psalm experienced sore trials. But the thing is, if the only thing that Psalm 88 has to offer to us is the consolation of knowing that other people suffer too, Well then what real good is that to us? It's not really of any help to us when we're stuck in the darkness. And the good news is that the primary speaker in Psalm 88 is not the man who is identified as the author in the title. It's not. The primary speaker is not Haman the Ezraite. The primary speaker of Psalm 88, and of all the Psalms, is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Why can I say this? Well, I can say this because no one who has ever lived has known the misery of feeling overwhelmed as well as Jesus did. No one has ever experienced that the way Jesus did. Think of the Garden of Gethsemane. Think of what he experienced there. On the night when he was betrayed, knowing what was about to come upon him, he said to his disciples, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Isn't that what the writer of Psalm 88 is experiencing and expressing? And as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, the Gospel writers tell us that the sweat fell from Him like great drops of blood. This was intense, overwhelming suffering that Jesus was enduring. Not just physical, but also spiritual suffering. And when he was arrested and put on trial, it was as if he could see the tidal wave of suffering and judgment that was about to fall upon him. And as he hung dying on the cross, he felt the wrath of God crashing down upon him and crushing him under its weight. Jesus put himself through that overwhelming misery for our sake. He bore the wrath that you and I deserve so that we could be set free from condemnation and be reconciled to God. So we turn now to the second major part of the psalm which begins in verse 8. And here the prevailing theme is the misery of feeling trapped. And the first thing that stands out in this section is that the psalmist says that God is the one who has done this to him. God has brought this trouble upon him. He says, you have caused my companions to shun me. You have made me a horror to them. We also saw this back in verse 6. You have put me in the depths of the pit. And we continue to see it throughout the rest of the psalm. It's really a theme that dominates the psalm. You cast my soul away. You hide your face from me. I suffer your terrors. When saying these things, the psalmist is not blaming God, he's confessing his faith here. He's acknowledging that his suffering has not happened to him by chance. He knows that God is sovereign over everything. He's a good, sound theologian. He's a Calvinist, right? God sends adversity just as he sends prosperity. And it can be disturbing for us to think about this, to think that God is the one who brings trouble into our lives. Some people, some Christians find that to be very, very troubling, so much so that they don't even want to believe it. Oh, I would think that that's the worst thing that you could possibly do, is to take that step, is to say, no, I don't think that God is in control of this. Oh, that would be terrible, wouldn't it? If God wasn't in control, The one thing that gives us hope amidst our troubles is that God is sovereign. We know, as Christians, God has a purpose in adversity. And if we're believers in Jesus Christ, that purpose is for our ultimate good, as we're assured in Romans 8. And this is what enables us to go to God for relief. whenever we find ourselves in a state of distress. Well, this idea of being trapped finds expression especially in the second part of verse 8 where the psalmist says this, I am shut in so that I cannot escape. My eye grows dim through sorrow. So here is a man who feels mired in a desperate and hopeless situation. He feels trapped. The sorrows from which he cannot escape are wearing him down, too. He's like Christian in the slew of despond. And I think that is how you pronounce it, by the way. My wife keeps telling me whenever I say slough, it's slew. So slew. Like Christian, in the slew of despond, the more he struggles, the deeper he sinks into the mire. And anyone who's had to deal with unrelenting pain, or sorrow, or adversity, or depression, has some sense of what the psalmist is describing here. As the ordeal drags on and on, the hope of finding relief fades away, and there seems to be no way of escape. And yet notice how the psalmist responds to his experience of feeling trapped. He doesn't give up. He doesn't give up. He keeps calling upon the Lord every day. He keeps wrestling with God in prayer. Like Jacob when he wrestled with God in the book of Genesis. He said, I will not let you go until you bless me. And as the psalmist does this, he gives an argument for why God should answer him. And we've seen this in our studies of the Psalms, that it's good to give grounds for your requests, to give reasons why God should grant them. And the ground that he gives here is a wonderful one. He sets it forth by asking these rhetorical questions. He says, do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? And Abaddon, by the way, is a Hebrew word that means destruction. And it's interesting, in God's providence, we're reading a passage in Revelation that uses the same word later on in worship this evening. But here the word abaddon is just being used to refer to the grave. It's a synonym for the grave. So the point that the psalmist is making here is this. This is the grounds that he's giving for why God should deliver him. He's saying, look, if you let me die, I won't be able to declare your praise anymore. This is a man who understands. He knows his shorter catechism, right? At least the first question. He understands his chief end in life is to glorify God. And he wants to keep on living so that he can continue to pursue that chief end. Now, there's something else very interesting about verses 10 through 12 and that litany of questions that are asked there. Now the psalmist, he's posing these as rhetorical questions that assume a negative answer, right? That's the whole point. Saying, look, if you let me die, I won't be able to praise you, because I know that you don't work wonders for the dead. But the interesting thing about this is, the actual answer to each and every one of those questions, in light of the rest of the teaching of Scripture, what is the actual answer? It's yes. Yes. God does work wonders for the dead. The departed do raise up. to praise Him. His steadfast love and His faithfulness do extend even to the grave and even beyond the grave. And God showed all of this when He raised Christ from the dead. And Christ's resurrection assures us that death will not separate us from the love that God has for His redeemed ones in Jesus Christ. Well, as we reflect upon this second part of the psalm and this picture of the misery of feeling trapped and hemmed in, we're reminded of how Jesus experienced the same thing during his lifetime and especially at the end of his life. Though he pleaded with His Father, asking that the bitter cup that He was about to drink, it was being placed before Him, ask that it be taken away from Him. Yet He submitted His will to the will of His Father. And so what do we see there? What we see is that it was Christ's own will that trapped Him, that bound Him. to what was going to happen to him. When they came to arrest him, he made no attempt to flee or to resist. In fact, he rebuked his disciples when they tried to resist. He undid the damage that was done by one of their swords. And then as Jesus stood trial, he made no attempt to defend himself, even though the charges being brought against him were completely unfounded. And when his body was nailed to the cross, he stayed there even as people mocked him and said, you know, if you are who you say you are, you could call the angels of God and they would deliver you. But Jesus, instead, he let his life be gradually wrung out of him until he breathed his last breath and succumbed to death. Well, in all of that, it was not anything external to Jesus that bound Him to that fate. No one took His life from Him. He laid it down of His own accord. He laid down His life for the sake of His sheep, for those given to Him to save. And once He had laid His life down, once He had secured our redemption, He had the authority to take up His life again. And He did exactly that. Our risen Lord does indeed have the power to work wonders for the dead. Well, this brings us then to the third and final section of our psalm, which begins in verse 13. And here we're given a picture of the misery of being alone, and especially being alone in the face of suffering. And the first way in which the psalmist expresses this is by saying that the Lord seems to be hiding his face from him. Though he persists in crying out to God for help, there's no answer. The only thing that God seems to be directing at him is his wrath. His anger. He feels like Job, and in many ways this psalm reads like the book of Job. The writer of this psalm feels as if it's as if God has given him a t-shirt with a target on it. And now God has made him the special object of his assaults. Well, what a terrible thing that would be. To have God against you. That is to be as alone as you could possibly be. It doesn't matter how many friends you have if you have God as your enemy. But the psalmist, he doesn't even have any friends left. As he says in verse 18, you have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. His only companion is the darkness that's swallowing him up. Now we might wonder, again, how a psalm that concludes in such a bleak manner can in any way be an expression of faith. And here we find some more helpful thoughts on this psalm from John Calvin. He says this, it is true that when the heart is in perplexity and doubt, or rather is tossed hither and thither, faith does seem to be swallowed up. But experience teaches us that faith, while it fluctuates amid these agitations, continues to rise again from time to time, so as not to be overwhelmed. And if at any time it is at the point of being stifled, it is nevertheless sheltered and cherished. For though the tempest may become never so violent, it shields itself from them by reflecting that God continues faithful and never disappoints or forsakes his own children. It's true that this psalm ends on a seemingly hopeless note, but what we have to remember is this wasn't the end of the psalmist's story. At the time when he wrote this, he couldn't see any way out of the darkness that was engulfing him. But in the end, one way or another, the Lord did prove himself to be the God of his salvation. And by giving us a psalm that ends on such a dark note, the Lord teaches us that there may be times when we too feel overwhelmed, or trapped, or alone. And yet, if those times do come into your life, you can be confident, as a believer in Jesus Christ, that the Lord is still the God of your salvation. Well, Jesus certainly knew what it was to be utterly alone in facing the wrath of God. Think of what happened to Him. At the very end of his life, one of his closest friends betrayed him into the hands of his enemies. At his arrest, his other disciples fled from him. Peter, the one who was probably closest of all to him, Peter denied him three times. And as He stood trial, there was no one to defend Him, no one to speak for Him. And as He hung on the cross, He experienced the total isolation of having the divine wrath fall upon Him. crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the darkness that covered the land at that hour, that was symbolic. It was symbolic of the darkness into which Jesus was descending. Darkness was His only companion in that hour. The one who had no sin was made sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. Well, the fact that the primary speaker in Psalm 88 is Jesus means you always have hope, even when the darkness is your only companion. If you belong to Christ, you are never alone, regardless of how things may appear, regardless of how you may feel. And because you walk by faith in Him and not by your feelings, you can be confident that you won't stumble when you feel all alone in the dark. Listen to Spurgeon on this. He says, any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light. Faith's rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy. since faith places her hand in that of her great guide. We're not alone. You're never alone if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. As those precious words from the 23rd Psalm assure us, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Praise God for that. Amen.