NIV Psalm 88:1 A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. For the director of music. According to mahalath leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
O LORD, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you.
2 May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry.
3 For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like a man 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 upon me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. Selah
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, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do those who are dead rise up and praise you? Selah
11 Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction?
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, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me?
15 From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death; I have suffered 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 my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend.
9 my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you.
Perhaps more than anything else, this verse characterizes the life of our Lord, the man of many sorrows.
Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:10a Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,...
Psalm 22: 6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
Isaiah 50:6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.
Hebrews 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered
There are many, many more verses of scripture applicable to the sorrow and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, among them Psalm 69. When God the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to seeing Christ in the Old Testament, we find that there are references to Him everywhere! Isaiah is full of passages which refer to Christ, but in the Psalms themselves, a major theme is the theme of the suffering and sorrows of Messiah.
Verse 9 also characterizes the Lord Jesus in the second portion, that of constant prayer. As I think of Christ, so frequently I see Him praying. As a child, I once asked my pastor, "If Jesus is God, then who was He praying to?" Jesus the man on earth prayed heartily and often.
Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:
Mark 9:28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" 29 He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer."
Matthew 14:21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. 22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 During the fourth watch of the night [3-6 a.m.] Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.
Mark 14:32 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray."
Hebrews 5:7 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
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Heavenly Father, One of the weakest areas in my Christian life is prayer. Jesus our Lord gave us such a wonderful example to live by of prayer in the life of a believer. Ah Lord, help me to pray more, and to be quiet, and to listen to Your voice. Thank-You, gracious, kind, and loving Father. In Your Son's Holy Name, Amen.
--to be continued
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