The Daily Devotional Podcast

To Boldly Go - 2 | Psalm 88: 10-18

• Waypoint Church

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This reflection explores how bold faith includes bringing our darkest emotions and deepest struggles honestly before God. Through the example of Psalm 88, it shows that faith is not the absence of pain or confusion, but the willingness to continue directing our prayers toward God even when answers seem absent.

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“May the Lord bless you and keep you — and may His presence guide you this week.”


SPEAKER_00

Today I'm reading Psalm eighty eight verses ten through eighteen. Are your wonderful deeds of any use to the dead? Do the dead rise up and praise you? Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love? Can they proclaim your faithfulness in the place of destruction? Can the darkness speak of your wonderful deeds? Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness? O Lord, I cry out to you. I will keep pleading day by day. O Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn your face from me? I have been sick and close to death since my youth. I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors. Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me, your terrors have paralyzed me. They swirl around me like flood waters all day long, they've engulfed me completely. You've taken away my companions and my loved ones.

SPEAKER_01

Darkness is my closest friend. Nearly a full third of the Psalms are classified as laments.

SPEAKER_00

They don't all resolve neatly, though. Psalm eighty eight is a great example of this. There's no dramatic breakthrough, no sudden answer, no final verse that ties everything together. It simply ends, leaving the tension hanging in the air. In many ways it feels unlike the Psalms we're accustomed to reading. There's no turn toward celebration, no declaration of victory, no closing reassurance that everything will work out in the end. Instead, the psalmist pours out his anguish before God and concludes with these haunting words Darkness is my closest friend. It's difficult to read a passage like this without feeling uncomfortable. We often expect faith to sound confident and triumphant. We assume that strong believers always know what to say and always know what God is doing. Yet Psalm eighty eight gives us a different picture. The psalmist is confused. He feels abandoned. He can't make sense of his circumstances. But what stands out most is not the darkness he describes, it's the fact that he continues speaking to God from within it. Every complaint is still a prayer, every question is still directed toward God. Every expression of pain is evidence that he's not walked away. That may be one of the most important lessons this Psalm has to offer. When life becomes difficult, we often assume that faith means finding the right answers. Sometimes faith looks much simpler than that. Sometimes it looks like continuing the conversation when the answers are nowhere to be found. The invitation from Hebrews 4 was to approach God's throne of grace with confidence. Psalm eighty eight reminds us that confidence doesn't mean arriving with everything figured out. It means trusting that God welcomes us even when all we have to bring is confusion, grief, and unanswered questions. The psalmist never pretends the darkness is light, but neither does he allow the darkness to silence his prayers. Sometimes the boldness we need is not certainty in things to come, but honesty.

SPEAKER_01

Not having all the answers, but refusing to bring an edited version of our hearts before God. Before I close in prayer, here's a question to wrestle with What am I tempted to hide from God instead of bringing honestly before Him? Father, thank you that I don't have to hide my struggles from you.

SPEAKER_00

Give me the courage to bring my questions, fears, and grief into your presence, trusting that your grace is large enough to hold them all.