Why We Need Sad Songs & Psalms

Psalm 88.

It is considered the darkest and saddest Psalm. It has been known as a sad complaint and the cry of the depressed. It feels as if the psalmist, Heman the Ezrahite, has ransacked his vocabulary of doom and despair to use every word he can think of to describe his life. Makes you want to go read it right?

Heman the Ezrahite is not as popular of a writer as David when it comes to the Psalms. Most of us, I would dare to say, have little knowledge even of who Heman is. Nor do we set out to memorize his 18 verses that are tucked away in the book of Psalms. Is it because he did not write words that were coated with honey and sparked our faith? Is it because Psalm 88 is not a Psalm of rejoicing that we feel like can be our war cry onto the battlefield? Is it because we consider David, Solomon, and other Psalmist to be men who had a way better resume of faith than Heman did. If I had to guess, it is all of the above.

We must know that one’s description of their agony and questioning of God’s whereabouts does not dismiss them as a person of incredible faith. Heman is no different. Heman was the grandson of Samuel (1 Chronicles 6:33), the final judge of Israel who anointed King Saul and King David. In addition, Heman is listed as one of three main musicians appointed by King David (1 Chronicles 25:1). Heman was considered very wise. Solomon, the wisest of all, was compared to Heman (1 Kings 4:31). Heman was not a spiritual lightweight. He was running in a crowd of spiritual giants. Yet these are his words,

1 Lord, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
² May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.

³ I am overwhelmed with troubles
and my life draws near to death.
⁴ I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like one without strength.
⁵ 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.

⁶ You have put me in the lowest pit,
in the darkest depths.
⁷ Your wrath lies heavily on me;
you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.
⁸ You have taken from me my closest friends
and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape;
⁹     my eyes are dim with grief.

I call to you, Lord, every day;
I spread out my hands to you.
¹⁰ Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise you?
¹¹ Is your love declared in the grave,
your faithfulness in Destruction?
¹² Are your wonders known in the place of darkness,
or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

¹³ But I cry to you for help, Lord;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
¹⁴ Why, Lord, do you reject me
and hide your face from me?

¹⁵ From my youth I have suffered and been close to death;
I have borne your terrors and am in despair.
¹⁶ Your wrath has swept over me;
your terrors have destroyed me.
¹⁷ All day long they surround me like a flood;
they have completely engulfed me.
¹⁸ You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
darkness is my closest friend.

Verse one is considered the only positive line in the whole collection of verses. Immediately he starts into his midnight darkness. He goes on and on about his masses of troubles. As the end of the Psalm approaches, we might expect a glorious declaration of faith. Instead, the Psalm ends how it starts, in darkness.

If Psalm 88 were on the shelf of your local bookstore these are the endorsements, you would find on the back of it:

• Derek Kidner says, “This is the saddest prayer in the Psalter.”
• C. Leupold says, “It is the gloomiest Psalm found in the Scriptures. The psalmist is as deeply in trouble when he has concluded his prayer as he was when he began it.”
• J. Stuart Perowne says, “This is the darkest, saddest Psalm in all the Psalter. It is one wail of sorrow from beginning to end.”
• John Phillips says, “There is scarcely a glimmer of hope anywhere. It is full of dejection, despair, death. The very last word of the psalm is darkness.”
• Marvin Tate says, “Psalm 88 reminds us that life does not always have happy endings.”

Are you feeling inspired yet? When I read these quotes I started to wonder why these verses are even found in our bibles. We know that all scripture is God-breathed. We cannot exclude Psalm 88 from that. There is nothing encouraging for us in these verses. There are no profound theological statements. Really, all we have is a sad song/Psalm.

I realized I was looking at it through the wrong lens though. This Psalm did not do much for me because I looked at it from one side of the spectrum. The words of J. N. Darby revolutionized the way I think about writing that isn’t beaming with sunshine. J.N Darby said of Psalm 88, “one time this was the only Scripture that was any help to me because I saw that someone had been as low as that before me.”

Psalm 88- is the for the person being tossed out at the sea who needs to know that they are not the only ones who don’t see the lighthouse yet. Is it for the person sitting in the bottom of pit begging for the Lord to break through the depression and anxiety and haven’t quite found the new strength in their bones to stand up and walk outside. It is for the family sitting in the hospital room through Christmas who have prayed for the miracle and it hasn’t come. It is for the Mom going on eight years of being barren longing to have a baby. It is for the addict who desperately wants to stop shooting up but finds themselves with the needle in their arm yet again. It is for the teenage girl who wants freedom from the way she thinks about food but still skips lunch.

The fact Psalm 88 is in the bible is an indication of just how full of grace our God is. He let Heman write these words down. He didn’t merely let him write them down, but He let centuries of people read them. He let us read them. He let them be sandwiched between two other chapters of scripture, one about the glorious things God had spoken, the other about the steadfast love of the Lord. He didn’t need Heman to muster up something to match what was happening around him. He only needed him to be honest. The Lord let these verses be in the bible. That means they matter. That means they have a purpose.

We don’t know the specific suffering Heman was referencing in Psalm 88. I think there is a point to that though. If he had named it, some of us would have dismissed ourselves from being able to relate to him. There is power in letting pain just be pain.

In the middle of reading the saddest Psalm that was ever written, I found myself rejoicing that I serve a God that does not shame us for our sad songs. He does not dismiss our late night journal entries. He does not turn away in disgust when our feelings take the microphone. He let Heman get it out.

My friends, He is okay if you get it out too. It is liberating to me that Heman didn’t change his position from the start to the finish. Often we can feel the pressure to tagline the end of our hurt with tweetable Christian clichés. Heman wrote a sad Psalm. It was a sermon in itself. Remember what J.N Darby said. This sad Psalm was the only thing that helped him at one point.

Don’t miss this though. I am not saying all of us need to throw pity parties. The message of Psalm 88 is less about the despair and more about the grace of a God who lets us confess when we are in those places.

One of my friends recently got a tattoo that says, “let the monsters see you smile.” I agree, stare the beast in the face and let them see you smile through whatever it is. Stare the enemy in the eyes and let him know that the joy of your salvation is not something that he can rob you of. Sometimes though, sometimes, look the enemy right in the eyes and let him see you cry. Make sure he knows that you serve a God that lets you.

We have a God says we can have the sad songs and the sad Psalms. They can be written down. In fact, we need them. Psalm 88 is proof.

Jesus thank you. Thank you that you let us get it out, whatever it is. Thank you that you are there even we feel you are the farthest. Thank you that you are binding up open wounds even we don’t think you are. Thank you for Psalm 88 and for the way it has made people feel understood.