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Psalm 88:16
Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.
14LORD, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
16Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.
17They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me.
18You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.
Notice
“Your fierce wrath” makes this lament hard to soften: the speaker addresses the very God whose terrors he describes as overwhelming and cutting him off.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What is hardest for you to hear in the speaker’s words, “Your fierce wrath”?
Write on thisWhen have you struggled to address God because you feared his response?
Write on thisWhat would you want to say to God if your prayer could end without relief?
Write on thisConnect
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 31:22As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.Both speakers describe being cut off from God; Psalm 31 also recounts being heard, while this verse remains in terror.
Job 23:16For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.Both speakers name God as the source of their terror and describe themselves as overcome.
Galatians 3:13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”The connection is limited to judgment language: the psalm names God’s wrath, while Galatians names the law’s curse and Christ’s redeeming act.
Revelation 6:17for the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”Both passages portray wrath as overwhelming, with the psalm describing personal terror and Revelation asking who can stand.
Job 33:7Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my pressure be heavy on you.Both mention terror, though Job’s speaker promises freedom from fear while the psalm’s speaker describes being overcome by God’s terrors.
Psalm 88:5set apart among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand.Both verses use being cut off to describe the speaker’s distress, with verse 5 comparing his condition to the dead.
Isaiah 53:8He was taken away by oppression and judgment. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the …Both use the words “cut off”; Isaiah specifies removal from the land of the living, while the psalm names God’s terrors.
Daniel 9:26After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off, and will have nothing. The people of the prince who come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. …Both use “cut off” amid descriptions of devastation, though Daniel speaks of the Anointed One and the psalm of its speaker.
Psalm 102:10because of your indignation and your wrath; for you have taken me up and thrown me away.Both prayers address God’s wrath as something the speaker suffers, using images of being overwhelmed or thrown away.
Psalm 90:11Who knows the power of your anger, your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?Both link God’s wrath with fear, one through a cry of distress and the other through a question about its power.
Romans 8:32He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?The shared thread is God’s involvement: the psalm names his terrors, while Romans names his giving up his own Son.
Isaiah 53:4–6Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.Both describe suffering attributed to God, with Isaiah reporting how observers regarded the sufferer and the psalm addressing God in distress.
Where this verse fits
Feeling distant from God. grief. doubt.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
There is room in Scripture for a prayer this bleak. The speaker names God’s wrath and terror without reaching relief; even these words are addressed to God.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 88:16. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
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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).