Psalm 88

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. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like a man without strength. 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. You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily upon me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
Selah
You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you. Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do those who are dead rise up and praise you?
Selah
Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion? But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you. Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death; I have suffered your terrors and am in despair. Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me. All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me. You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend.



Dear Lord, my soul cries out to You… I read today’s Psalm with fear & trembling and I am not sure how to write in this blog about the Psalm. I shall just pen down what are the thoughts that run through my mind…

I wondered what the Psalmist was going through at the point of time that he was writing this Psalm… Why so much in despair? So much lamenting… Was God really against him? What really happened? It was stated that it was a psalm of the Sons of Korah… a maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. Who is Herman? One of the sons of Korah… Hmm…

Findings of Heman:
HEMAN [H2124] (faithful). 1. A man noted for wisdom, to whom Solomon is compared (1Ki 4:31; 1Ch 2:6). 2. "The Singer," a chief Levite, and musician (1Ch 6:33; 15:17, 19; 16:41). The king's seer (1Ch 25:5). His sons and daughters temple musicians (1Ch 6:33; 25:1-6). "Maskil of," title of Psalm 88.


Well, I may not know what exactly happened… But this is what was prompted in my mind… The scene of Numbers 16 kept coming back to me when I read the Psalms written by the sons of Korah…

Korah and gang (With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council.) went up to oppose Moses on the account of saying Moses set himself above the Lord’s assembly… Hiaz… the result was 250 men died while offering incense… They thought they were offering incense, but they were treating the Lord with contempt… The final verdict was (no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before the LORD, or he would become like Korah and his followers.)

But when these 250 men died, the people struggled with the heavy punishment the Lord inflicted on them, and begin to complaint againt Moses, the Lord’s Anointed One… Haiz… and the result was another 14,700 men died…

Later in Numbers 26, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho, a census was taken of the whole Israelite community by families--all those twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army of Israel and it was reported that the line of Korah, however, did not die out (Num 26:11).

With all these background, I can imagine the Psalm written by the sons of Korah… why so much lamenting… The writer felt that he was as good as dead, full of trouble, set apart with the dead… etc… where darkness is his closest friend, and questioned if the Lord’s love was declared in the grave, if His faithfulness declared in Destruction?

Then I asked, Lord, O Lord, what are You saying to me? It came so LOUD & CLEAR!!!
DO NOT TOUCH MY ANOINTED ONE!!!
DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT HIM, BUT TRUST AND OBEY!!!
HE IS SET APART BY GOD ABOVE HIS PEOPLE!!!

When I hear from the Lord, I just bow down and praise God!!! God is so good to me to give me His anointed servant to lead me… Indeed I praise God for my Spiritual Father, Apostle Lawrence Khong. FCBC is my Zion, and I am from Zion!!! My fountains is found in Zion!!!

O Lord, thank you for Your love for me. I love You, Lord Jesus…