Please read Psalm 88 (18 verses)

In this Psalm, the psalmist cries out to the Lord day and night. Our prayers and cries are not wasted when we come into the presence of the Lord. The psalmist is in deep trouble and his life draws near to the gates of death and hell. He feels he is counted as those who are already in the grave and are cut off from the living world. His mood has plummeted so low that he cannot find his way out of the Depression.

The psalmist thinks and feels that his Lord has put him there because of the anger of the Lord towards him. He thinks he is being punished and deserves to be trampled underfoot and to be held captive in this place. The waves of despair overwhelm him and he has become antisocial and rejected by his social group. He wonders if God will do something to answer his constant prayer and thinks that God would have nothing to do with a person like him. He is so low that his inner eyesight, and his life, is nearly gone from him. He knows he is heading further and further into the darkness to a place where the mercy of God is not known. He asks God if the dead praise Him and if he can be released from his mind prison. The psalmist seeks oblivion, or even just unconscious sleep, but it does not come to him.

He cries out continually to the Lord. Even so, he still suffers. He has suffered from his youth up and the pains of gloom seem to engulf him and drag him down into terror and despair. His friends and companions have all gone and there is now no hope left. Darkness and Depression are his only friends. This is the end of this Psalm that outlines the symptoms of Depressive illness. The Lord’s King suffered mightily and yet had God’s heart in him. God will rescue him through strengthening him in his despair and sense of coming doom…