Heman's Cry From the Depths
A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. For the director of music, according to Mahalath Leannoth. A wisdom psalm of Heman the Ezrahite.
The bleakest psalm. Heman cries day and night, counted with the dead, pinned under wrath, his friends removed by the Father he prays to. He asks whether the grave can praise, receives no answer, and the psalm ends in darkness with no turn.
88 1The Father of my salvation, by day I cry out, and at night I cry before you. 2Let my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry. 3For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to the grave. 4I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength. 5Set adrift among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. 6You have laid me in the depths of the pit, in the dark places, in the deeps. 7Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
8You have removed my companions far from me; you have made me an object of horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape; 9my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, my Father; I spread out my hands to you. 10Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you?
11Is your covenant love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? a a v11 Abaddon: Hebrew for 'destruction,' a name for the deepest place of the dead. 12Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13But I cry out to you for help, my Father; in the morning my prayer comes before you. 14Why, my Father, do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? 15Afflicted and close to death from my youth, I have borne your terrors; I am in despair. 16Your burning anger has swept over me; your terrifying assaults destroy me. 17They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together. 18You have removed lover and friend far from me; my companions are in darkness.
