When life is tough!

As I continue my readings in the Psalms, during my personal devotions, I arrived, this morning, at Psalm 88. Unlike many psalms that begin with pain and perplexity, but end on a note of triumph, this psalm ends (in my RSV!) with the word "darkness". There is no relief; no improvement; no divine intervention. It could well have been titled "A Psalm for the hopeless"!

However, that very fact makes this an important psalm! As we read through the words of the psalmist, we may remember that not every life has a happy ending - but that that does not mean that the Lord has forsaken us! I think of individuals who, like Heman (the writer of this psalm) spend almost their whole lives in pain of one kind or another (see v.15). I think of my brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus who live in one of those 50+ countries in which to be one of His followers is to invite persecution - some forms of which are beyond my imagination. 

We may also take heart from the fact that this apparently God-forsaken author seems to have been one of the pioneers of the singing guilds that were set up by David, and to which we owe the psalms of  the Sons of Korah - one of the richest veins in the Psalter. Heman may have been under a great burden; he may have been totally despondent; but his life was far from pointless! In the most difficult of situations; in the most depressing of moments; in the most painful of lives; Almighty God can bring about the bearing of much fruit.

There is also a lesson, in this psalm, for those of us who do not suffer in the ways in which others do. We must be careful that we do try to persuade the sufferer that their situation of the result of Father's anger against them! This was the problem that was displayed by some of the 'friends' of another character from the pages of the Tanakh (the "Old" Testament), Job. They were quite convinced that the tragedies that had befallen that godly man were the result of some unconfessed sin. They were wrong!

Heman's inspired words - yes, even words like these are inspired by God the Holy Spirit - remind us that no life need be in vain. Our eternal destiny does not depend on what we are considered to have achieved - or to have failed to achieve! - in this life. It is by the grace of God that I am saved, not due to my works, even the best of which are as a polluted garment (see Is.64:6).