Today's Video Devotion

Friday 12/1/23

Our God Listens

📺️ Psalm 88 🔊

¹O lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

 ²Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

 ³For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

 ⁴I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

 ⁵Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

 ⁶Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

 ⁷Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

 ⁸Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

 ⁹Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

 ¹⁰Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.

 ¹¹Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

 ¹²Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

 ¹³But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

 ¹⁴LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

 ¹⁵I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

 ¹⁶Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

 ¹⁷They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

 ¹⁸Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

Written By: God through Inspiration

Penned By: David, Asaph, Solomon, Heman, Ethan, Moses, and the Sons of Korah

Date Penned: (1440-586 BC)

Overview: Poetry for the Expression of Praise and Worship to God (c 1-150)

Theme: The Third Book of Psalms (c 73 - 89)

Message: God Understands Our Misery (v 1-18)

Psalms 88 Commentary

(88:1) Rock Bottom - Have you ever felt as though you have hit rock bottom? The writer of this psalm sinks so low that he even despairs of life itself. Although everything seems to be bad and getting worse, he tells all of it to God. This is one of the few psalms that gives no answer or expression of hope. We must look elsewhere for that. Don't think that you must always be cheerful and positive. Grief and depression take time to heal. No matter how low we feel. We can always take our problems to God and express our anguish to him. 

(88:5) Trust Over Feelings - Our feelings may be as obvious and painful as those expressed by the psalm writer, but they don't give the complete picture. In fact, our feelings are usually very unstable. When we bring our unedited feelings to God, we allow him to point out where they are incomplete. We are in trouble whenever we give our feelings divine authority or assume that God can't handle what we feel. Praying the psalms teaches us to bring everything about ourselves to God and trains us to trust that he is with us even when our feelings lead us to doubt his presence. 

(88:13-14) A Prayer Companion - The writer of this psalm was close to death, perhaps debilitated by disease and forsaken by friends. But he could still pray. You may not be so afflicted, but you may know someone who is. Consider being a prayer companion for that person. You can lift this psalm to God as a prayer on his or her behalf.

Each day, we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter, making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today, we continue in the Book of Psalms with Chapter 88. In our text today, we see a theme of God listening and understanding even at our lowest point. Our God understands our sorrows, hears our prayers, and responds according to His Will and Purpose for our lives. In making application, we can have comfort knowing that our Lord hears us, and since He has suffered through so much when He walked on this earth - He knows our pain. How about you? Do you know that our God understands our sorrows? Let us learn from our Psalm and text today to be comforted and encouraged to know that our God listens to our prayers and understands our sorrows.