Passage Research
Psalm 88 — Sermon Preparation
A Heman psalm of unrelenting darkness, the bleakest in the Psalter, crying out from the brink of death with no resolution or comfort. Below is a research summary for Psalm 88, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.
- 19
- verses
- 142 / 112
- Hebrew words / lemmas
- 7
- classic sermon excerpts
- 4
- preachers & commentators
Psalm 88 in the Hebrew
Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Strong's | Count | Glosses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מַחְשָׁךְ | machshâk | H4285 | 2 | darkness, dark place |
| פֶּלֶא | peleʼ | H6382 | 2 | miracle |
| רָחַק | râchaq | H7368 | 2 | widen, recede |
| יָדַע | yâdaʻ | H3045 | 3 | know, seeing |
| בּוֹר | bôwr | H953 | 2 | hole |
| קֶבֶר | qeber | H6913 | 2 | sepulchre |
| תְּפִלָּה | tᵉphillâh | H8605 | 2 | intercession, supplication |
How preachers through history handled this text
7 public-domain excerpts on Psalm 88, from the church fathers to the Puritans.
“This psalm is a lamentation, one of the most melancholy of all the psalms; and it does not conclude, as usually the melancholy psalms do, with the least intimation of comfort or joy, but, from first to last, it is mourning and woe. It is not upon a public account that the psalmist here complains (here is no mention of the afflictions of the church), but only upon a personal account, especially trouble of mind, and the grief impressed upon his spirits both by his outward afflictions and by the remembrance of his sins and the fear of God's wrath. …”
— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 3 (Job to Song of Solomon), on Psalm 88:1–30 (Public Domain)
Need the complete sermon prep report on this passage?
Greek exegesis, historical background, current scholarship, sermon outlines, illustrations — a complete PDF report on Psalm 88, delivered within 24 hours.