Beyond Mediocrity Blog

(Image courtesy of birdsandblooms.com.) (Author’s note: I encourage you to open your Bible to Psalm 88, read it, and then read this article with your Bible still open.) During the winter season, sunlight dims and darkens; temperatures drop and winds howl; and precipitation comes in the form of ice. The whole world seems frozen and dead. There is a psalm in the Bible that is known as the most depressing Psalm. In it, the author feels deserted, desperate, as good as dead, and by the end he is in no better place than where he began. The Psalter (the collection of Psalms in the Bible) was meant to be sung in temple worship by the Jews. What is remarkable to me is that, presumably, Psalm 88 – that most depressing of all psalms – was written to be sung during temple worship. This song that ends with no hope and no answer from Yahweh was sung to the Lord by his people, to his praise and glory, and for the edification of the saints.

(Image courtesy of ibelieve.com.)   “Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin which he made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 15:25–26). “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place…. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent…” (Acts 17:26, 30).