Read
Psalm 88:6
You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
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.
6You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
7Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.
8You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
Notice
“You have laid me” confronts the reader with a hard prayer: the speaker attributes his place in the darkest depths to God.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What would make the words “You have laid me” hard for you to pray?
Write on thisWhat, if anything, in your life would you describe with the words “the darkest depths”?
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 86:13For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.Both describe the lowest depths; Psalm 86 speaks of deliverance, while Psalm 88 speaks from within the pit.
Psalm 69:15Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.Both address God using the pit and the depths: one describes being there, while the other pleads against being swallowed.
Psalm 143:3For 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 describe darkness near death, though Psalm 143 names an enemy as the one who has brought the speaker low.
Psalm 40:2He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.Both speak of God and a pit; Psalm 40 recounts being brought out, while Psalm 88 describes being laid there.
John 12:46I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness.Darkness is the shared image; Psalm 88 describes remaining in its depths, while Jesus speaks of believers no longer remaining in darkness.
Lamentations 3:2He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.Both speakers attribute their darkness to the one who has brought them there, making the lament hard to soften.
Genesis 37:24and they took him, and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it.The shared feature is a pit: Genesis describes someone thrown into one, while the psalm uses it as an image of distress.
Job 10:21before I go where I will not return from, to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;Both portray darkness in the depths of suffering; Job speaks of approaching death, while the psalm describes being laid low.
Lamentations 3:55I called on your name, LORD, out of the lowest dungeon.Both prayers address God from a place described as lowest, whether a pit or a dungeon.
Deuteronomy 32:22For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.Both describe the lowest depths in relation to God; Deuteronomy portrays the reach of his anger, while the psalm voices personal distress.
Jude 1:6Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great …Both mention darkness, though Jude describes angels held for judgment and the psalm describes a human speaker's distress.
Jude 1:13wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.Both use intense darkness imagery; Jude describes darkness reserved forever, while the psalm names the speaker's present depths.
Where this verse fits
Feeling distant from God. grief. illness or diagnosis.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
You do not have to add a hopeful ending to every prayer. Here, Scripture preserves a cry spoken to God from darkness, with no relief yet in view.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 88:6. 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).