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Psalm 88:3
For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol.
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.
4I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help,
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.
Notice
A soul “full of troubles” and a life near Sheol, the realm of the dead, leave this prayer without a trace of relief.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What troubles, if any, would you name beneath the words “full of troubles” today?
Write on thisWhat would you want to say to God about the nearness of death?
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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 107:18Their soul abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to the gates of death.Both passages describe life approaching death, with Psalm 107 adding the concrete sign of losing all desire for food.
John 12:27“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time’? But I came to this time for this cause.The troubled soul is explicit in both passages; John records Jesus naming his trouble as he speaks about the time before him.
Lamentations 3:15–19He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.Both speakers describe suffering as something that fills them: troubles in the psalm, bitterness and wormwood in Lamentations.
Mark 14:33–34He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed.The psalm describes a soul full of troubles; Mark describes Jesus becoming troubled and distressed with Peter, James, and John present.
Matthew 26:37–39He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled.Both passages describe severe distress: the psalm speaks of a soul full of troubles, and Matthew describes Jesus becoming sorrowful and troubled.
Job 6:2–4“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!Both speakers describe the extent of their distress through a physical measure: fullness in the psalm and weight in Job.
Isaiah 53:10–11Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his …Both passages speak of suffering that reaches the soul, though Isaiah also speaks of offspring and prolonged days.
Psalm 69:17–21Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!Both prayers bring distress before God; Psalm 69 adds an urgent plea for him to answer and stop hiding his face.
Psalm 88:14–15LORD, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?The same prayer moves from a soul full of troubles to asking why the LORD rejects that soul and hides his face.
Isaiah 53:3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t …Suffering is the shared thread; Isaiah describes a despised and rejected man, while the psalm names troubles filling the speaker’s soul.
Psalm 143:3–4For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.Both speakers describe threatened life through the language of death; Psalm 143 adds an enemy and dwelling in dark places.
Job 33:22Yes, his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers.Both passages pair soul and life with approaching death, using Sheol in the psalm and the pit and destroyers in Job.
Where this verse fits
Illness or diagnosis. feeling distant from God. death and what comes after.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
You do not have to add a hopeful ending to this prayer. The speaker addresses God with troubles still filling his soul and death drawing near.
Now put it in your words.
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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).