Some Reflections on Suffering and Hope

11 Jul, 2026

How can we hope, when all hope seems lost? How can we live through immense pain? Read with me Psalm 39 and Psalm 88, for a hope that never fails.

At first, these songs feel odd and out of place. The endings particularly feel out of place, for, these are the only Psalms to end on a note of despair, rather than hope or praise. The sense of oddness only grows when one considers the endings more closely: David pleads with God to look away from him that he might die in peace, and Heman states that his closest friend is darkness. These are clearly songs of deep desperation, pain, anger, grief, weariness, and despair.

At the very least, this should encourage us that it is normal to feel such emotions at times. But this goes much deeper: did you notice who these songs are sung to? The writers are not singing to themselves or to any human...they are singing to God. They are praying.

Do you pray, when you feel like this? To you cry out to God?

At this point, some of us might recoil at the thought of praying these sorts of prayers to a holy God. We might even question why God would allow such prayers to be in His word. Derek Kidner helps us find some grounding:

"The prayer of 13a [Psalm 39] makes no more sense than Peter's 'depart from me'; but God knows when to treat that plea as in Luke 5:8ff., and as in Matthew 8:34f. The very presence of such prayers in Scripture is a witness to His understanding. He knows how men speak when they are desperate."

Kidner, Derek, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Psalms 1-72, Inter-Varsity Press, 1973

God understands. More, it is safe to pour out our desperation to Him. He didn't push David away, nor did He reject Peter. Indeed, to try and wrestle with these feelings alone would be like David trying to muzzle himself in Psalm 39:1-3; worse, even: to exclude God from our deepest pain would be to push Him away. In contrast to our impulse, God wants us to draw in. He invites us in, and, he understands.

How can any of this be?

I can't remember exactly how it was put, but I remember reading many years ago that the Psalms are either sung about Jesus, or sung to Jesus, or sung by Jesus. There is probably an additional aspect, but you get the point. So, who is singing Psalms 39 and 88?

Picture a darkened olive grove. Listen, coming from within are cries of immense pain. Cries far worse than you or I could ever understand or know: for the cup of God's wrath was about to be poured out upon Jesus (Jeremiah 25, Luke 20, 22).

Now picture the bloody cross. Hear Jesus as he gasps for breath, suffocating slowly. Hear him as he cries: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). Then, darkness.

So, who sings Psalms 39 and 88? Who sings their haunting final words?

Jesus.

Here is a hope that will never fail: God turned away from Jesus on the cross. Jesus got the abandonment we deserved. This means that God will never turn away from you. He will never abandon you.

Do you want this? Well, take a look at John chapter 3. Give your life to Jesus. And you'll have a hope that never fails.

Do you have this? Then, in your darkest moments, remember to pray your pain, remember that God understands, and remember that Jesus sang these songs for us.

Echoes

That garden
knows a cup
we cannot drink.

That hill
knows a depth
we cannot
fathom,

knows
a cry
we cannot
unhear—

my God,
my God

—yet in the depths
of the day,
and with lips once
darkly
indifferent,
we remember:

That tomb,
knows

life!

Poem from Swallowed, Michael C Johnson, 2025

Further study: Tim Keller Sermon