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Psalm 88:8

You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.

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.
9My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, LORD. I have spread out my hands to you.
10Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.
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← Psalm 88:7Psalm 88:9 →
Notice

Friends recoil, escape is closed off, and the speaker addresses God as the one who has brought this isolation upon him.

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

What feels hardest to bring to God about a friendship you have lost?

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What would you want to say to God when there seems to be no escape?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

11 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
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 passages describe the loss of friends whose withdrawal adds to the sufferer’s distress.
Job 19:13“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.Both speakers attribute their estrangement from friends to God, bringing the loss of human closeness into their complaint.
Psalm 88:18You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.Both verses address God as the one who has put friends far away, returning to the same loss of companionship.
Job 19:8He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.Both speakers describe having no way through and attribute their confinement to God.
Job 30:10They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.Both passages describe being treated with disgust, with Job also naming the contempt expressed through spitting.
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 speakers describe becoming repulsive to people they know, so that familiar faces become sources of rejection.
Psalm 22:6But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.Both speakers describe the humiliation of being despised by other people.
Psalm 31:8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.Both prayers speak to God about confinement: Psalm 88 names being trapped, while Psalm 31 describes room to move.
Isaiah 49:7The LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and …Both texts speak of someone despised by others; Isaiah also records the LORD’s promise of honor for the one he addresses.
Lamentations 3:7–9He has walled me about, so that I can’t go out. He has made my chain heavy.Both speakers describe confinement with no escape, presenting God as the one responsible for their enclosure.
Zechariah 11:8I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.Both texts describe being loathed by others, though Zechariah speaks within a conflict between the speaker and three shepherds.
Where this verse fits

Loneliness. broken friendship. feeling distant from God.

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

Something small to carry out of this verse

Name one lost friendship in prayer

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Encouragement

You do not have to soften the pain of rejection before speaking to God. This prayer names his hand in suffering and leaves the confinement unresolved.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 88:8. 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).