O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night. Now hear my prayer; listen to my cry. For my life is full of troubles, and death draws near. I am as good as dead, like a strong man with no strength left. They have left me among the dead, and I lie like a corpse in a grave. I am forgotten, cut off from your care. You have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths. Your anger weighs me down; with wave after wave you have engulfed me. Interlude You have driven my friends away by making me repulsive to them. I am in a trap with no way of escape. My eyes are blinded by my tears. Each day I beg for your help, O Lord; I lift my hands to you for mercy. Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead? Do the dead rise up and praise you? Interlude Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love? Can they proclaim your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds? Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness? O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day. O Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn your face from me? I have been sick and close to death since my youth. I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors. Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me. Your terrors have paralyzed me. They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long. They have engulfed me completely. You have taken away my companions and loved ones. Darkness is my closest friend.
Psalms 88:1-18 NLT
God sometimes feels like our enemy. The Bible understands this feeling, and this psalm expresses both struggle and faith in relationship with God. The author (Heman) feels that the Lord has thrown him out (v.6), is angry with him (vv.7, 16), driven his friends away (vv.8, 18), and ignored his prayers (v.14). Yet the psalmist does not stop praying; he continues to cry out to the Lord who alone can give mercy.
God’s word gives voice to all our emotions, even the feeling that the Lord is against us. But the Bible’s solution is not to run away from the Father, but deeper into His love. The Lord will never forsake us, and He is close to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18). We are given permission to experience the wide range of human emotion, including anger at God, yet we are invited into a deeper transformation as we understand who God really is, how life works, and our own nature. When the low moments of life and faith come, don’t run away from them but go deeper into the Father’s arms.
Have you ever felt that God was against you? How did you deal with it? How would you help someone who felt that the Lord was against them?
