bleak

November 13, 2015

The final plea to Yahweh (Ps 88:13-88:18)

“I cry out to you!

Yahweh!

In the morning

My prayer comes before you.

Yahweh!

Why do you cast me off?

Why do you hide your face from me?

Wretched and close to death from my youth on,

I suffer your terrors.

I am desperate.

Your wrath has swept over me.

Your dread assaults destroy me.

They surround me

Like a flood

All day long.

From all sides,

They close in on me.

You have caused friends

To shun me.

You have caused neighbors

To shun me.  

My companions are in darkness.”

Just like Job, the psalmist remains faithful despite all his sufferings. Thus this psalm ends with a direct appeal to Yahweh, over and over again. He cried out in the morning to God. Why was he cast off? Why couldn’t he see the face of God? He believed that his physical suffering was related to his spiritual sufferings. His whole life he has been close to death with his physical afflictions. He felt like he was surrounded with waves of water all around him. More than that was the fact that his friends and neighbors were now shunning him. The only friend that he had left was darkness itself. Wow! This is a dreary bleak psalm of agony.

July 10, 2015

Job knows that death awaits him (Job 14:18-14:22)

“But the mountain falls.

The mountain crumbles away.

The rock is removed from its place.

The waters wear away the stones.

The torrents wash away the soil of the earth.

Thus you destroy the hope of mortals.

You prevail forever against them.

They pass away.

You change their countenance.

You send them away.

Their children come to honor them.

They do not know it.

They are brought low.

It goes unnoticed.

They feel only the pain of their own bodies.

They mourn only for themselves.”

Job thought that the mountains would fall. That rocks and stones would wear away. Water would uproot the soil. Thus the same is true for mortals. Their hopes are dashed. God prevails against them as they pass away. In the end, although the children honor them, they only mourn for themselves. They know that this death awaits them. The future is bleak.