Job 34 and Psalm 88

Fall is a season of change and transition, a time for cozying up the house and pulling out the flannel and wool. Winter is gathering and so are we. And the dark is creeping in on our sunlight hours. The days grow shorter as the nights lengthen. We turn the lights on earlier each evening. We light candles throughout the house. Woodstoves are lit, and smoke curls from their tall chimneys. This is how we press the cold darkness back into the night and keep it out of our living spaces. It’s practical, and defensive.

There is something about the dark that draws fear to the surface—something about late nights, dark rooms, and shadowed corners that make the hair stand up on your neck and make every noise important and ominous. I’ve laid awake at night, straining to hear if that little click I heard was the sound of someone trying to open the back door, or I will stare into the dark hallway, trying to decide if that weird shadow is the jacket I hung on the hook or a hooded figure. Sleep is precious and necessary; nighttime fear is a waste of precious sleep time. Yet, there we are again, letting our imaginations run the show. This fear will collect like cobwebs in your mind if you let it.

Job has truly suffered and lived through much sorrow and tragedy by God’s allowance and at the hand of the enemy. It seems reasonable for Job to notice the dark that has gathered around him and forced its way into his life. This is no imaginary, nighttime fear. This isn’t a cozy, dark, fall evening with warm wood fires and fragrant fall soups. Job is bereft and broken. His life is filled with deep darkness. Yet, he prays still. Like Heman the Ezrahite in Psalm 88, Job brings his complaint, his sorrow, his brokenness to God in prayer – fractured prayer from a shattered heart, but prayer nonetheless. Hear Heman’s words:

“For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves.”

Psalm 88:2-7

Heman the Ezrahite – who is he? He is mentioned in I Chronicles 6, where he is identified as the grandson of the prophet Samuel and a music leader in the tabernacle and temple. Asaph (another Psalm writer) is listed as Heman’s assistant.

In I Chronicles 25, we read that King David set Heman and others apart “for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals.” Heman’s sons also participated in the music in the tabernacle under Heman’s leadership. This passage tells us that Heman was father to fourteen sons and three daughters!

II Chronicles 5 explains how King Solomon brought the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD to the temple. ALl of the musicians and priests were gathered to celebrate this moment and to praise God. Verses twelve through thirteen say, “All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:

‘He is good;
his love endures forever.’”

Heman was a man of praise, of music, of wisdom, a leader in the temple and in worship. He sang praises with the temple worship team, exalting God for His goodness and love. Yet he experienced deep darkness. He found himself shrouded in it, buried in a pit, desperate for rescue from God. So he prays…

“You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape; my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?”

Psalm 88:8-12

“This good man, Heman the Ezrahite, went by this rough roundabout road that some of you have taken, and thus he found himself in terrible places. He seems to have been brought about as low as a man can be brought, but all the while there was this fact in his favor, he continued praying. He did pray. He would pray. He could not be made to leave off praying. If, by some process or other, Satan could have dragged him from the mercy seat, he would have had the diabolical hope of his ultimate destruction. But as long as the man kept on his knees, repeating his earnest cry to God for mercy, it was not possible that he could be destroyed.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (https://www.spurgeongems.org/sermon/chs2433.pdf)

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

Psalm 88: 13-18

Elihu speaks into the darkness Job has been living in. He speaks some good things, light-filled things, into the crevices and corners of Job’s experience. Some key truths to gather from Elihu’s words are: God is the holy Creator of all; without Him, we would return to the dust we are made from (v. 13-15). Our lives are truly in His hand, and His hand is always good (v. 10-12). There is no darkness or evil in Him, and nothing can be hidden from Him. He knows all things, and always acts in justice and in righteousness. He does not answer to us (v. 21-30). Though we are tired, worn, struggling, and sorrowing, our God is always good. He is light, and no darkness can overtake Him. Even when His face is hidden from us (Isaiah 8:11-22), we must trust Him; He is still good.

“When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, his covenant, his blood,
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.”

Edward Mote (My Hope is Built on Nothing Less)