the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
Psalms 88:1-18
This psalm constitutes one of the most sombre chapters in the whole of the Word of God. Here we find only gloom and death. Not a ray of light shines here; the soul in distress sees no prospect of deliverance. And yet a servant of God was able to say that there was a certain time in his life when this psalm was the only one which comforted him. Expressing, as it does, the thoughts of a believer, it proved to him that he also could still be a believer, even if he was passing through times of terrible soul anguish, during which heaven itself seemed closed to him. Perhaps one of our readers is also troubled, waiting for God to throw light on his condition and to give him – or help him to find again – the assurance of his salvation. Ah well! his very torments and sighs towards God are a proof that divine life is truly in him; the unbeliever does not yearn for God.
"In the morning shall my prayer prevent (come before) thee" says the psalmist (v. 13). Let us copy him; let us lay before the Lord at daybreak all the detailed events of the day which is beginning, and not only those which worry us (Psalms 5:3).
Finally, in some verses the depth of anguish, the pain and the loneliness turn the thoughts of the believer to the One who was the Afflicted above all others (e.g. vv. 6-8; 16-18).
