{"id":1157,"date":"2011-06-03T09:44:44","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T13:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/?p=1157"},"modified":"2011-05-17T22:37:24","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T02:37:24","slug":"thank-you-psalm-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/thank-you-psalm-88.html","title":{"rendered":"Thank You, Psalm 88"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What do we make of Psalm 88? We saw last week that the Psalms of lament are a beautiful, if misunderstood, part of the Psalter, and that they serve a clear spiritual purpose. I talked about how much I liked Walter Brueggemann\u2019s explanation of the cathartic pattern of these Psalms:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Kvetch.<\/li>\n<li>Kvetch.<\/li>\n<li>Kvetch.<\/li>\n<li>Receive assurance of faith.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>But what happens in a Psalm when there\u2019s no happy ending? Welcome to Psalm 88, which opens with the usual litany of complaints about isolation, fear, and imminent death. But instead of the usual \u201cBut yeah, I guess I <em>do<\/em> know that you\u2019re God and all\u201d ending of the customary Psalm of lament, Psalm 88 closes like this:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">[16]\u00a0Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">[17]\u00a0They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">[18]\u00a0Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s bleak, man.<\/p>\n<p>As far as I know (and please correct me if I\u2019m wrong), Psalm 88 is the only Psalm without a happy ending. There\u2019s no resolution here, no attempt to comfort. The Psalmist just puts all the pain out there and allows it to stand, unvarnished.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago I interviewed <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Martin_E._Marty\">Martin Marty<\/a> for an article I was writing, and he described to me the beautiful routine that he and his first wife had when she was terminally ill:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\">I\u2019d get up with her at midnight when she took her medication and we would read the Psalms.\u00a0 I would read the even Psalms and she would read the odd Psalms.\u00a0 I skipped 88 and she caught me.\u00a0 She said, \u201cWho do you think you are to skip that?\u00a0 If you don\u2019t pray the rough ones, the other ones don\u2019t mean anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marty had tried to skip 88 because he thought it would be agonizing for his wife, who knew she was dying, to hear the Psalmist\u2019s cold description of God not being present with anyone in the grave. (vv. 10-12)\u00a0 However, she called him out on it, and ultimately taught him that there is beauty in the stark realism and despair of this difficult piece of scripture.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, Psalm 88 has unexpectedly become one of my favorite Psalms. It\u2019s the one I turn to when I feel despair about situations I cannot change, the one I fall back on when God is impossibly far away.<\/p>\n<p>There is comfort in not only speaking our most heinous fears out loud but also in not hastening to cover them up with quick platitudes about how we know God will come to our rescue and deliver us from illness, pain, and death. Sometimes, God won\u2019t. Period. But we still find hope in the forlorn austerity of this Psalm, simply in knowing it\u2019s entirely permissible to speak to God this way.<\/p>\n<p>God can handle it. Voice your pain. \u201cIf you don\u2019t pray the rough ones, the other ones don\u2019t mean anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>#Twible Ps 80: G, you\u2019re supposed to be a shepherd, right? So herd us right back to you. Pls don\u2019t make us into mutton pie for our enemies.<\/p>\n<p>#Twible Ps 81: In which G plays the role of the Jewish mother no one appreciates. \u201cNo, don\u2019t mind me. I\u2019ll just sit here alone in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>#Twible Ps 82: G has 9:00 welfare meeting w\/ other gods. Baal fattens up on donuts while G advocates enhancing Medicaid programs.<\/p>\n<p>#Twible Ps 83: Kick our enemies\u2019 butts like you did to those Midianites that time with all the blood &amp; guts &amp; gore. That was WICKED cool, G.<\/p>\n<p>#Twible Ps 84: I\u2019d rather be a doorkeeper in the temple of my G than dwell w\/ you fools in Disney\u2019s Magic Kingdom. But maybe I\u2019ll visit.<\/p>\n<p>#Twible Ps 85: How long will you be ticked at us, G? Cause this time out chair is hard &amp; uncomfortable. We\u2019ll be good now, we promise. Pls?<\/p>\n<p>#Twible Ps 86: G, I\u2019ve been your faithful follower all my life &amp; now it\u2019s payback time. You TOTALLY owe me. So go shame my foes ASAP. Thx.<\/p>\n<p>#Twible Ps 87: Quick! Donald Trump needs long-form proof that you were born in Jerusalem &amp; are registered in G\u2019s Book of Zion. Cough it up.<\/p>\n<p>#Twible Ps 88: Only Ps without even the pretense of a happy ending: Life sucks &amp; then you die. So why is this one of my favorite Psalms?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do we make of Psalm 88? We saw last week that the Psalms of lament are a beautiful, if misunderstood, part of the Psalter, and that they serve a clear spiritual purpose. I talked about how much I liked Walter Brueggemann\u2019s explanation of the cathartic pattern of these Psalms: Kvetch. Kvetch. Kvetch. Receive assurance&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[318,22,21,178,143,308,309,310,311,312,313,314,315,316,70,319,1145,317],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-twible","tag-bible-commentary","tag-flunking-sainthood","tag-jana-riess","tag-martin-marty","tag-old-testament","tag-psalm-80","tag-psalm-81","tag-psalm-82","tag-psalm-83","tag-psalm-84","tag-psalm-85","tag-psalm-86","tag-psalm-87","tag-psalm-88","tag-psalms","tag-suffering-in-the-bible","tag-twible","tag-walter-bruegemann"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Thank You, Psalm 88 - Flunking Sainthood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/thank-you-psalm-88.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thank You, Psalm 88 - Flunking Sainthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What do we make of Psalm 88? 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We saw last week that the Psalms of lament are a beautiful, if misunderstood, part of the Psalter, and that they serve a clear spiritual purpose. I talked about how much I liked Walter Brueggemann\u2019s explanation of the cathartic pattern of these Psalms: Kvetch. Kvetch. Kvetch. Receive assurance&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/thank-you-psalm-88.html","og_site_name":"Flunking Sainthood","article_published_time":"2011-06-03T13:44:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-18T02:37:24+00:00","author":"Jana Riess","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/thank-you-psalm-88.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/thank-you-psalm-88.html","name":"Thank You, Psalm 88 - Flunking Sainthood","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-03T13:44:44+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-18T02:37:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#\/schema\/person\/fe5046ba89e9602d4de4c0e9b4ef53f8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/thank-you-psalm-88.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/thank-you-psalm-88.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/thank-you-psalm-88.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thank You, Psalm 88"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/","name":"Flunking Sainthood","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jana Riess","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#\/schema\/person\/fe5046ba89e9602d4de4c0e9b4ef53f8","name":"Jana Riess","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/954\/9541c99a399647166f0db1fe22b238ecx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/954\/9541c99a399647166f0db1fe22b238ecx96.jpg","caption":"Jana Riess"},"description":"Jana Riess is the author of Flunking Sainthood, a 2011 book about failing at twelve different spiritual practices. 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