What is the meaning of Psalm 88:5? I am forsaken among the dead • The psalmist voices the crushing sense of abandonment, as though God has left him in the realm of the departed. • Psalm 31:12 echoes the same feeling: “I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind.” • Lamentations 3:6 deepens the picture: “He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages.” • Although the feeling is real, Scripture promises God never ignores His people (Deuteronomy 31:8; Hebrews 13:5). The tension between experience and truth drives the psalmist to cry all the more to God rather than away from Him. like the slain who lie in the grave • Not just any dead, but the “slain”—victims of violence—now silent and powerless. • Psalm 44:22 portrays the faithful who “face death all day long… as sheep to be slaughtered,” showing that even covenant people can feel struck down. • 1 Samuel 2:6 reminds us the LORD “brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up,” grounding hope in His sovereign power over the grave. • The psalmist identifies with the slain, yet Scripture assures resurrection life for those who trust the LORD (Job 19:25–27; John 11:25). whom You remember no more • From the psalmist’s vantage point the dead seem beyond God’s notice. • Psalm 13:1 voices the same anguish: “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?” • Yet Isaiah 49:15 counters the despair: “Can a woman forget her nursing child?… I will not forget you!” God’s covenant memory is unfailing even when feelings insist otherwise. • Christ bore the ultimate “no remembrance” on the cross—“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)—so His people would never be forgotten. who are cut off from Your care • The phrase pictures being severed from God’s covenant love (ḥesed), the safest place a believer knows. • Psalm 31:22 admits, “In my alarm I said, ‘I am cut off from Your sight!’ Yet You heard my plea for mercy.” The psalmist’s panic was met by God’s attentive kindness. • Isaiah 59:2 explains the deeper issue: “Your iniquities have separated you from your God.” Only divine mercy can bridge that chasm. • Jesus was “cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8) so that all who trust Him are eternally kept in God’s steadfast care (Romans 8:38–39). summary Psalm 88:5 captures a believer’s darkest hour—feeling abandoned, silenced by death, forgotten by God, and severed from His love. While the anguish is real, the rest of Scripture answers every fear: God never forsakes, His memory never fails, and His covenant care never ends. The psalm invites us to bring even our bleakest emotions to the Lord, confident that the One who conquered death and bore ultimate forsakenness will meet us with unfailing grace. |
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