John Calvin Commentary Psalms 88:14

"Jehovah, why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from me?" — Psalms 88:14 (ASV)

Why, O Jehovah! will you reject my soul? These lamentations at first sight would seem to indicate a state of mind in which sorrow without any consolation prevailed; but they contain in them tacit prayers. The Psalmist does not proudly enter into debate with God, but mournfully desires some remedy for his calamities.

This kind of complaint justly deserves to be considered among the unutterable groanings of which Paul mentions in Romans 8:26. Had the prophet thought himself rejected and abhorred by God, he certainly would not have persevered in prayer. But here he presents the judgment of the flesh, against which he strenuously and magnanimously struggled, so that it might eventually become evident from the result that he had not prayed in vain.

Although, therefore, this psalm does not end with thanksgiving, but with a mournful complaint, as if there remained no place for mercy, yet it is all the more useful as a means of keeping us in the duty of prayer. The prophet, in heaving these sighs, and discharging them, as it were, into the bosom of God, undoubtedly continued to hope for the salvation for which he could see no signs with his physical senses. He did not call God, at the opening of the psalm, the God of his salvation, and then bid farewell to all hope of help from him.

The reason why he says that he was ready to die from his youth (Psalms 88:15) is uncertain, unless it is a probable conjecture that he was severely tried in a variety of ways, so that his life, as it were, hung by a thread amidst various tremblings and fears.

From this we also gather that God’s wraths and terrors, of which he speaks in verse 16 (Psalms 88:16), were not of short duration. He expresses them in verse 17 (Psalms 88:17) as having encompassed him daily. Since nothing is more dreadful than to conceive of God as angry with us, he rightly compares his distress to a flood.

Thus also proceeded his doubting. For a sense of divine anger must necessarily have agitated his mind with severe anxiety. But it may be asked, How can this wavering agree with faith? It is true that when the heart is in perplexity and doubt, or rather is tossed to and fro, faith seems to be swallowed up.

But experience teaches us that faith, while it fluctuates amidst these agitations, continues to rise again from time to time, so as not to be overwhelmed; and if at times it is at the point of being stifled, it is nevertheless sheltered and cherished, for though the tempests may become ever so violent, it shields itself from them by reflecting that God continues faithful, and never disappoints or forsakes his own children.