| Psalm 88 | |
| Subtitle: | "O God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee" |
| Image Upright: | 1.2 |
| Text: | by Korahites |
| Language: | Hebrew (original) |
Psalm 88 is the 88th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "O God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 87. In Latin, it is known as "Domine Deus salutis meae".[1] According to the title, it is a "psalm of the sons of Korah" as well as a "maskil of Heman the Ezrahite".
The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish and Catholic liturgies as well as a part of Protestant psalmody. It has been set to music, for example by Baroque composers Heinrich Schütz in German and by Marc-Antoine Charpentier in Latin. In the 20th century, Christoph Staude and Jörg Duda set the psalm for choir or solo voice.
The following table shows the Hebrew text[2] [3] of the Psalm with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the JPS 1917 translation (now in the public domain).
| Verse | Hebrew | English translation (JPS 1917) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Song, a Psalm of the sons of Korah; for the Leader; upon Mahalath Leannoth. Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. | ||
| 2 | O LORD, God of my salvation, What time I cry in the night before Thee, | ||
| 3 | Let my prayer come before Thee, Incline Thine ear unto my cry. | ||
| 4 | For my soul is sated with troubles, And my life draweth nigh unto the grave. | ||
| 5 | I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am become as a man that hath no help; | ||
| 6 | Set apart among the dead, Like the slain that lie in the grave, Whom Thou rememberest no more; And they are cut off from Thy hand. . | ||
| 7 | Thou hast laid me in the nether-most pit, In dark places, in the deeps. | ||
| 8 | Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, And all Thy waves Thou pressest down. Selah | ||
| 9 | Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me; Thou hast made me an abomination unto them; I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. | ||
| 10 | Mine eye languisheth by reason of affliction; I have called upon Thee, O LORD, every day, I have spread forth my hands unto Thee. | ||
| 11 | Wilt Thou work wonders for the dead? Or shall the shades arise and give Thee thanks? Selah | ||
| 12 | Shall Thy mercy be declared in the grave? Or Thy faithfulness in destruction? | ||
| 13 | Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? And Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? | ||
| 14 | But as for me, unto Thee, O LORD, do I cry, And in the morning doth my prayer come to meet Thee. | ||
| 15 | LORD, why castest Thou off my soul? Why hidest Thou Thy face from me? | ||
| 16 | I am afflicted and at the point of death from my youth up; I have borne Thy terrors, I am distracted. | ||
| 17 | Thy fierce wrath is gone over me; Thy terrors have cut me off. | ||
| 18 | They came round about me like water all the day; They compassed me about together. | ||
| 19 | Friend and companion hast Thou put far from me, And mine acquaintance into darkness. |
It is often assumed that the Psalm is a sick Psalm.[4] [5] The disease which laid low the psalmist could have been leprosy or some other unclean illness.[6] [7] Others see rather than a specific disease, a more general calamity.[8] [9]
By contrast, Hermann Gunkel contends that this psalm involves accusations against the Psalmist, regarding his sins mentioned.
Neale and Littledale find it "stands alone in all the Psalter for the unrelieved gloom, the hopeless sorrow of its tone. Even the very saddest of the others, and the Lamentations themselves, admit some variations of key, some strains of hopefulness; here only all is darkness to the close."[10]
It is described Psalm for the sons of Korah, a prayer for mercy and deliverance,[11] and a Maschil.[12]
According to Martin Marty, a professor of church history at the University of Chicago, Psalm 88 is "a wintry landscape of unrelieved bleakness". Psalm 88 ends by saying:
Indeed, in Hebrew, the last word of the psalm is "darkness".
Psalm 88 is recited on Hoshana Rabbah.[13]
In the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer, Psalm 88 is appointed to be read on the morning of the seventeenth day of the month,[15] as well as at Evensong on Good Friday.[16]
The Presbyterian Scottish Psalter of 1650 rewords the psalm in a metrical form that can be sung to a tune set to the common meter.[17]
Heinrich Schütz set the psalm in a metred version in German, "Herr Gott, mein Heiland, Nacht und Tag", SWV 185, as part of the Becker Psalter, first published in 1628. Marc-Antoine Charpentier compose around 1690 Domine Deus salutis meae, H.207, for soloists, chorus, flutes, strings, and continuo.
Verse 10 is used in a recitative of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah. Peter Cornelius wrote a choral setting in German as the first of Drei Psalmlieder, Op. 13.
In 1986, Christoph Staude set the psalm for three-part mixed choir and orchestra. Jörg Duda set the psalm as Exaltion III, Op. 31/3, for bass-baritone, horn, bass clarinet, cello and organ.