Psalm 88 is a psalm that doesn’t get much attention, and the reason will become clear quickly. It’s 18 verses long, and it may be the most honest prayer in the Bible.
Psalm 88 is a psalm of lament. Laments are prayers that bring our pain and questions straight to God. They give us words for the moments when life hurts and we can’t understand what God is doing.
What might surprise you is that these words were written as a song, meant to be sung when God’s people gathered to worship.
Meet Heman
The psalm dates back to around 1000 BC, and it was written by a man named Heman. The simple way to describe him is “worship leader,” but that doesn’t capture how significant his role was. Heman and the other singers and musicians led the nation of Israel in worship. He was a leader, gifted by all accounts, someone people looked up to. That’s why his honest words should inspire us.
These words are for the person whose prayers have gone unanswered. For the person who feels lonely and left out. For the person who is exhausted from holding it all together.
Heman answers a question many of us have asked: what do you do when you believe God is good, but life doesn’t feel good?
He shows us four things to do when life gets complicated.
When You’re Confused, Trust God’s Heart
Confusion gets personal when what we believe about God collides with what we’re experiencing. Heman calls God his Savior, and then goes on to describe a life that feels abandoned (Psalm 88:1-5).
When life isn’t trending up and to the right, we’re prone to despair. We start asking why things are going this way. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? You don’t have to live very long to be confused about the state of the world. Why do we treat each other the way we do? Why is life unfolding like this? If we aren’t careful, that confusion leads straight to despair.
Or we can follow Heman’s lead. He knew everything he was about to unload on God. He knew what he was going to say. But look at how he starts:
“O Lord, God of my salvation...” (Psalm 88:1a, NLT)
He begins with trust. When we begin there, we can experience life, even pain, in a way that leads toward redemption. When you’re confused, trust God’s heart.
When You’re Frustrated, Be Honest
Then Heman really gets going. (Psalm 88:6-12). It’s hard to miss the frustration and the pain in these verses. It’s also hard to miss the lesson tucked inside them: when you’re frustrated, be honest.
“You have thrown me into the lowest pit, into the darkest depths. Your anger weighs me down; with wave after wave you have engulfed me. ” (Psalm 88:6-7 NLT)
There’s nothing to be gained by holding back with God. Heman leaves nothing unsaid. He’s an open book. He understands his suffering as God’s anger, and he brings that accusation directly into prayer. He says the things we often think but never say out loud.
Why can he do that? Because he began with trust. If you’ve found yourself praying this way while wondering whether God even cares, Heman gives you words to bring to God from that very place.
When You’re Disappointed, Keep Going
Have you ever prayed for something that didn’t happen? Heman has too.
You pray about something that’s keeping you up at night. You ask God to help, to change something, to do something. And then you wait. Eventually you start wondering if he’s even listening.
Maybe you’ve prayed for your marriage to get better. For your child to make better decisions. For healing, for a relationship to be restored, for an opportunity to open up. And nothing seems to change. At some point you start to wonder, why do I keep praying about this? What’s the point?
Heman can relate (Psalm 88:13-14). He feels rejected. He feels like God has turned away. He’s been praying, and from where he’s standing, nothing is getting better.
“O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep on pleading day by day. O Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn your face from me?” (Psalm 88:13-14 NLT)
But did you catch what he says? “I will keep on pleading day by day.” Tomorrow morning, he’s going to pray again. There is something incredibly powerful about continuing to pray when you’ve been disappointed, especially when you have no reason to believe tomorrow will be any different.
I wonder how many of us have quietly stopped praying about something because we got tired of getting our hopes up. We never made a big announcement or decided to walk away from God. We just stopped bringing that one thing up.
That’s what makes Heman’s response so remarkable. He’s disappointed and discouraged, and he has more questions than answers. Yet he keeps bringing those questions to God.
Sometimes trusting God looks like getting up tomorrow morning and having the same conversation you had yesterday, and being willing to have it again the day after that. It’s hard, and it’s so important. When you’re disappointed, keep going.
When You’re Discouraged, Hold On
Here’s how the psalm ends (Psalm 88:15-18). It’s an abrupt ending, and it’s a dark one.
“I have been sick and close to death since my youth. I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.
Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me.
Your terrors have paralyzed me.They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long.
They have engulfed me completely.You have taken away my companions and loved ones.
Darkness is my closest friend.”Psalm 88:15-18 NLT
Usually when the Bible tells us about someone going through a hard time, things eventually get better. God shows up, turns it around, and gives everybody a reason to celebrate. We expect a bow on top. That never happens in Psalm 88. Heman starts in a dark place, and eighteen verses later he’s still there. His circumstances haven’t changed, his prayers haven’t been answered the way he hoped, and he still doesn’t understand what God is doing.
That’s what makes it so relatable. Sometimes life doesn’t turn around as quickly as we’d like. Sometimes hard seasons last longer than we hoped. You thought things would be better by now. You thought your marriage would be healthier, your finances more stable, the thing you’ve struggled with for years finally behind you. You thought you’d have answers. When it doesn’t happen that way, discouragement creeps in, and you start wondering how much longer you can keep doing this.
That’s where Heman finds himself. And here’s the remarkable part: even though his psalm ends in darkness, he is still talking to God, just as he always has. He pours out his heart in prayer, not because he has to, but because in spite of everything, his trust in God continues.
We never find out what happened next for Heman. We don’t know if his circumstances improved or if he ever got the answers he wanted. But we do know that through it all, he kept reaching toward God. And his faithfulness left a legacy. His fourteen sons went on to lead Israel in worship. People noticed that Heman kept praying. When you keep going and persist through the hard things, your kids, your family, your friends, and your coworkers will notice.
When you’re discouraged, hold on.
God Is Still With You
I hope you hear this clearly: God loves you. He is with you no matter what you’re experiencing, and he is with you in all of your feelings.
When you are confused, frustrated, disappointed, or discouraged, God is still with you. And here’s how we know. Alongside a psalm like Psalm 88, we also have Psalm 139.
So take a moment to slow down, read Psalm 139:1-12, and let yourself be reminded of God’s love and care for you in every season of life.
