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Psalm 88:18

You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.

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.
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← Psalm 88:17
Notice

“You have put” addresses God as the one behind the separation, making the absence of lover and friend part of a prayer that ends in darkness.

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

What would you want to say to God about a friendship that now feels far away?

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What is hard to put into writing when a prayer ends with darkness and no resolution?

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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 142:4Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.Both prayers describe isolation: friends are far away in Psalm 88, and no concerned person can be found in Psalm 142.
Psalm 88:8You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.Both verses address God as the one who has removed friends, with verse 8 also naming rejection and confinement.
Matthew 26:31Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of me tonight, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock …Both texts describe separation from companions: the psalm names distant friends, while Jesus warns of stumbling and quotes words about scattered sheep.
Job 19:13“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.Job and the psalm's speaker both attribute the distance of close companions to God.
Psalm 38:11My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.Both verses name lovers and friends who remain far away, with Psalm 38 locating that distance around the speaker's plague.
Proverbs 19:7All the relatives of the poor shun him; how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.Both describe the absence of friends, while Proverbs connects that abandonment to poverty and unanswered pleas.
Psalm 31:11Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.Both portray social isolation, with Psalm 31 describing acquaintances who recoil and people who flee.
Job 19:12–15His troops come on together, build a siege ramp against me, and encamp around my tent.The shared thread is suffering attributed to God; Job's supplied verse describes a siege, while the psalm describes friends removed.
Isaiah 51:18There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons whom she has …Both describe absent human support: friends are far away in the psalm, and no son takes her hand in Isaiah.
Mark 14:50They all left him, and fled.Both texts portray abandonment, expressed as friends put far away in the psalm and everyone fleeing in Mark.
Luke 23:49All his acquaintances and the women who followed with him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things.Both mention people standing at a distance from the sufferer, though Luke says these acquaintances and women remain watching.
2 Samuel 16:3The king said, “Where is your master’s son?” Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he is staying in Jerusalem; for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will restore …The connection is limited to someone's absence: the psalm laments distant friends, while Ziba reports that his master's son remains in Jerusalem.
Where this verse fits

Loneliness. grief. broken friendship.

What the Bible says about loneliness →What the Bible says about grief →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 88:18 aloud as an unfinished prayer

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

There is room in prayer for the absence of people you love, even without words of relief afterward. This psalm ends in darkness, still addressing God.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 88:18. 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).