Daily Lesson for November 13, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 88 verses 13 through 18:

13 But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
darkness is my only companion.

Sometimes there just isn't a happy ending.

Most Psalms and indeed most Bible stories and definitely the Christian Bible itself end with resolution. Evil is defeated.  Good prevails. The Lamb wins.

Not so with Psalm 88. It is a full 18 verses of struggle, crying out, wrestling and asking God, "Why?".  And at the end there's no resolution. In fact, at the end the psalmist is left feeling abandoned and close to death in a kind of pit where darkness is his sole companion.

Now why, I wonder, in the thousand years of putting together the canon didn't somebody come along and bring resolution?  Why not end it more positively?  Why not tie it up with a bow? It would only have taken one verse. I could have done it in three words: "Then you answered."

But they didn't. And why not?  Because sometimes God doesn't answer -- or perhaps more accurately, sometimes God hasn't answered yet.  Therefore, sometimes, some people just feel left alone, abandoned even --there in the pit without any prospect of resolution or escape.

Psalm 88 is for them. It's for those who are still in the darkness.  It's for those for whom a pretty bow just wouldn't be right. It's for those times when another word beyond the pain just won't fix things.

In its wisdom the Psalter did well to let darkness have the last word on this occasion. I pray I will know when to do the same.