Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
September 17, 1986
In the Pits
Psalm 88, King James Version
The Holwick family recently took a tour of Mammoth Cave through the historical opening…
Impressive wide mouth.
Deeper, darker.
Wide avenues become narrow passages.
Bottomless pits on either side.
This is the tourist route.
Professional cave explorers go deeper. Their goal is to connect caves together. At this point Mammoth Cave is the longest in the world, 310 miles. Cavers there must slither over slimy clay. Headroom drops below three feet. Deepest parts are full of water. Up to their waist. Up to their neck. Finally they had their noses to the ceiling, with only four inches of air left. In a sudden rainstorm, the water level can rise seven feet in one hour. [I show congregation my hardhat and slimy sweatshirt from the "Wild Cave" tour.]
It's easy to see why the Bible uses the imagery of caves to describe the feeling of depression. Caves and emotional depression are both dark, silent, empty and forbidding. This certainly fits the mood of Psalm 88. As verse 6 says: "Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps." Out of all the psalms, this is the only one without a happy ending. It stays bleak.
Have you ever felt this way? We are known for being an optimistic nation. But at any given time, 10% of all Americans are significantly depressed. Depression is even widespread among children. It's not always evident, because we try to cover it up. But it's there.
If this psalm is any indication, even believers can get depressed. Really depressed. The person who wrote Psalm 88 gives several reasons for his black mood. He first mentions troubles. Verse 3 says, "for my soul is full of troubles." There are times in our lives when everything seems to go wrong at once. A real problem has a way of consuming all our energy and vitally.
When I think of troubles, I think of our shut-ins. Most of them would love to be here every Sunday. But they can't. The best they can do is listen to tapes of the service. For many of our shut-ins, the goal for today is to have less aches and pain than they had yesterday. They can't expect they're condition to improve much at all. It's a wonder they can keep their spirits up at all. But in their trouble, God has given them people who care for them. People who vowed "in sickness and in health" and really meant it.
The psalmist had the troubles, but he didn't have the blessing. It almost seems he never had any blessing. He claims in verse 15: "I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up." Throughout the psalm, his troubles guide his thoughts toward death. In verse 5, he says he feels released among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave. In the Old Testament, the word "slain" always refers to a violent death, usually in battle. He is saying he feels like a dead soldier who is about to de dumped in a huge common grave.
He spends a lot of time talking about death. Much of it makes Christians uneasy. In verse 5, he says God does not remember the dead. In verses 10 and 11 he questions whether God's love and power exist beyond the grave. Verse 12 call death the land of forgetfulness. He has a very grim view of death. Instead of eternal fellowship and bliss with God in heaven, He make it sound like we all go to hell.
This isn't the only place in the Old Testament that paints a bleak picture of death. Many Christians are bothered by this. Several things should be kept in mind:
First, the Old Testament did not have a full view of what heaven is like. The New Testament and Jesus give a much clearer idea. There are some promises for believers about heaven in the Old Testament, but there are also many questions they raised.
A second point is related to this: The Jews put most of their focus on this life. They loved life. They enjoyed their fellowship with God here and now. Death ends life. The way the psalm sees it, a dead body can't sing Amazing Grace. It can't have fellowship with God.
Few things can depress us like death. C.S. Lewis was one of the best known Christians of our time. He married late in life, and after only a few years his wife developed cancer. After much suffering she died. Lewis took it hard. He tried to pray, but couldn't. He felt like a door was slammed in his face. He never gave up believing in God, but his concept of God changed. God became a cruel tyrant, a sadist.
Lewis' friends were appalled. Since millions looked up to him as a model of faith. And now he felt God had forsaken him. He sank into a deep depression. In time Lewis began to see that he was not knocking on God's door, he was trying to kick it down. Slowly his faith began to encourage him and give him strength. He then discovered a deeper joy than he ever had before.
The author of Psalm 88 hasn't gotten to that point. He still sees death as the ultimate barrier. And it's not just a sudden future event. It's as if death has him in its power right now. His darkness is deepening.
Our guides told us that the greatest fear of cave explorers is getting lost. After a while your light goes out. Total, absolute darkness. Can't see hand in face, and a terrible silence. Rescuers often find the lost banging rocks together to keep from going crazy. This sense of isolation is a main theme in the psalm. He feels cut off from people. It's one thing to have enemies. It's quite another to lose your closest friends. Sometimes that's all that keeps you hanging on.
Verse 8 says he is shut off from his friends. He's and abomination to them. Many countries routinely practice torture. One of the most effective tortures is also very simple. Isolation. It will break people faster than pain.
His ultimate isolation is from God. Verse 14 says God is hiding from him. Like C.S. Lewis, the psalmist feels God isn't listening to his prayers. Even worse, God is out to get him.
Verse 6 - You have laid me in the pit.
Verse 7 - You have afflicted me with your waves.
Verse 8 - You have driven my friends from me.
Instead of love, verse 16 says he only feels God's fierce wrath.
We don't know if he sinned or not. He never expresses quilt. He seems to be in Job's position. God is out to get him for no good reason. In verse 14 he pleads:
Why do you cast me off?
Why do you hide from me?
He gets no answers. The psalm ends on a very sad note, my only friend is darkness.
This psalm seems very out of place in the Bible. It's sort of like Ecclesiastes. It says things that don't seem to fit. But there are good reasons why God put it here.
First, Christians need to know that they can suffer. And it may seem like there's no end in sight. But this doesn't meat God no longer cares for you. Americans have the belief that happiness is an inalienable right. It's not. Happiness is a gift of God that we can't say we deserve. Sometimes in His wisdom, he will withhold it from us. So don't think your depression is always a sign that God has given up on you. It's a natural feeling for Christians. (Paul's despair of life in a particularly trying time)
Second, another reason for this psalm is that it shows us how to keep the faith in tough times. The psalmist feels God has given up on him, but he never gives up on God. In the first verse he acknowledges that God is his Savior. He knows that God is loving and faithful. He is not experiencing it, but he knows that's what God is like. And despite his depression and frustration, he keeps on praying. (Do you?) The essence of the book of Job is Satan's question in 1:9 "Does Job love you for nothing?" We should keep faith in God in spite of circumstances.
Finally, this present order is not final. Psalm 88 is Job's story from one dimension. We don't hear God's side. But the Bible says God has a purpose in everything that happens. Our struggle is to believe that through thick and thin, even when God seems very far away. It is all part of God's refining process. As A.W. Tozer said: "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply."
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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