“O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:”
Psalm 88, the darkest lament in the Psalter, opens: "O LORD, God of my salvation, when, at night, I cry out in your presence." The address to God as God of salvation is immediately complicated by the question "when will my cry be heard?" The nighttime context emphasizes darkness and isolation.
Church Fathers on Psalms 88:1
1. The Title of this eighty-seventh Psalm contains a fresh subject for enquiry: the words occurring here, “for Melech to respond,” being nowhere else found. We have already given our opinion on the meaning of the titles Psalmus Cantici and Canticum Psalmi: and the words, “sons of Core,” are constantly repeated, and have often been explained: so also “to the end;” but what comes next in this title is peculiar. For “Melech” we may translate into Latin “for the chorus,” for…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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