Psalm 88-89 Book Three (Psalms 73–89): Wrestles with the fall of Jerusalem and the seeming failure of God’s promise to David. 

Big Picture: Psalms 88-89 are two maskils (Hebrew: for causing wisdom) that close this book of crisis. Psalm 88 is a personal lament of a God-fearer who is near to death. Psalm 89 is a corporate lament over God’s apparent rejection of his anointed king. Both end without resolution. Together, they instruct God’s people how to pray amidst great trial. 

Psalm 88 is a model lament for a Christian amidst a great hardship. We learn at least three lessons from Heman: 

1) Remember who God is: The Sovereign One Who Saves (1-9) 

2) Never stop praying. (1b, 9b, 13, 17) 

3) Keep the right motive: A desire to praise God. (9b-12) 

Psalm 89 is a model lament for the church amidst great persecution. We learn at least three lessons from Ethan: 

1) Remember who God is: Our All-Powerful Shield (5-18) 

2) Never stop praying the promises of God. (19-37) 

3) Keep the right motive: God’s renown among the nations. (50-51) 

Christological fulfillment: These two Psalms, together, find their fulfillment in the One whose friends abandoned him, who came fully under the wrath of God, who went into the darkest depths, who took the scorn of his neighbours, and who’s crown was cast into the dust all on our behalf. In Psalm 88, we see Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. In Psalm 89, we hear the bewildered prayers of his disciples in the wake of Golgotha. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the resounding answer to the central pleas of both Psalms, allowing us to pray them now with far-surpassing hope.

*This sermon owes a tremendous debt to Jim Hamilton's two volume commentary on the Psalms