Tehillim 88 | A Sense of Abandonment

Psalms 88–89 conclude the third book of Tehillim, and both express deep distress and a sense of abandonment by God. Psalm 88 conveys this on a personal level, while Psalm 89 does so on a national level. In both, the common thread is the theme of Divine concealment and rejection: “Why, O Lord, have You forsaken me; why do you hide Your face from me?” (88:15), “You have forsaken, You have spurned, You grew furious at Your anointed” (89:39).

In Psalm 88, this sense of abandonment is centered on imagery of Sheol (the underworld): “Like corpses lying in the grave whom You no longer recall, cut off from Your care” (88:6). The poet fears descent into Sheol and pleads for God to spare him from this fate, using the argument: “Is Your loyalty mentioned in the grave, Your faithfulness in the realm of destruction?” (88:12). He wants to live in this world, to continue proclaiming God’s name — and that is the basis of his plea. His sense of abandonment is made worse by how his companions have distanced themselves from him: “You have distanced my friends from me; You made me a horror to them” (88:9).