O Lord, God of my salvation, when, at night, I cry out in your presence,
let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.
✙ Ps 88:1-2
✙
Psalm 88 is a prayer of complaint, and the complaint is so sustained that even Calvin states that there's a danger in this prayer of committing the sin of murmuring against God. But "by applying to God the appellation of the God of his salvation, casting,
as it were, a bridle upon himself, he restrains the excess of his
sorrow, shuts the door against despair, and strengthens and prepares
himself for the endurance of the cross."
Psalm 88 teaches me that God can handle my problems better than I can, so I should not hesitate to lay them at his feet. But at the same time, I must not forget my true calling, namely, to take up my cross and follow Jesus. When I do this, the burden that I think impossible to bear becomes bearable, for I know that pain and death will never have the final word.
Psalm 88 teaches me that God can handle my problems better than I can, so I should not hesitate to lay them at his feet. But at the same time, I must not forget my true calling, namely, to take up my cross and follow Jesus. When I do this, the burden that I think impossible to bear becomes bearable, for I know that pain and death will never have the final word.
Jesus, help me, I am sinking
in the cold and chilly wave;
give me strength, my faith increasing;
give me strength, my faith increasing;
thou alone hast power to save.
Let my soul be filled with rapture,
Let my soul be filled with rapture,
let my hope be stayed in thee,
let me bear my cross with patience,
let me bear my cross with patience,
till I sleep and wake with thee. Amen.
✙ Fanny Crosby
