Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo
Read

Psalm 88:1

A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Suffering of Affliction.” A contemplation by Heman, the Ezrahite. LORD, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.

1A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Suffering of Affliction.” A contemplation by Heman, the Ezrahite. LORD, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.
2Let my prayer enter into your presence. Turn your ear to my cry.
3For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →
Psalm 88:2 →
Notice

Day and night mark a prayer that has gone on through trouble, even as the sufferer names YHWH as the God of his salvation.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What trouble returns to your prayers in both daylight and darkness?

Write on this

What is hard to say about God as your salvation while you are still crying for help?

Write on this
Connect

Where else Scripture says this

12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 25:5Guide me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. I wait for you all day long.Both prayers address God as the God of salvation and describe long hours spent waiting or crying before him.
Luke 18:7Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?Both passages describe people crying out to God day and night; Luke speaks of God avenging his chosen ones.
Isaiah 12:2Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD, the LORD, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.”Both name God as salvation, though Isaiah speaks with trust and song while the psalm speaks through persistent crying.
Psalm 1:2but his delight is in the LORD’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.Both use the words “day and night,” describing meditation on the LORD’s law in one passage and crying before him in the other.
Psalm 22:2My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.Both prayers describe crying to God through daytime and nighttime; Psalm 22 also names the absence of an answer.
Hebrews 5:7He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been …Both passages join crying in prayer with God's power to save; Hebrews also speaks of tears and being heard.
Psalm 86:3Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.Both prayers address the Lord with cries that continue through the day; Psalm 86 makes the plea for mercy explicit.
1 Kings 4:31For he was wiser than all men—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations all around.Both texts name Heman, though these verses alone do not establish that they refer to the same person.
Titus 3:4–7But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared,Both texts identify God with salvation; Titus speaks of the kindness and love of God the Savior.
Genesis 49:18I have waited for your salvation, LORD.Both address the LORD as the source of salvation, with waiting in Genesis and sustained crying in the psalm.
2 Chronicles 5:12also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and …Both texts name Heman in a musical setting, with a song heading in the psalm and singers with instruments in Chronicles.
Luke 2:30for my eyes have seen your salvation,Both speak of God's salvation, though Luke describes salvation seen and the psalm describes crying before the God who saves.
Where this verse fits

Feeling distant from God. grief. waiting.

What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about patience →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray one sentence about what keeps returning

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

You do not have to describe relief you have not felt when you pray. Here, the sufferer cries day and night and still addresses God as his salvation.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 88:1. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 88 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).