Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

88:13-18 I Continue to Pray but Feel No Reply. And so the prayer goes on; this section recapitulates the previous themes. Earnest and urgent prayer continues (v. 13), the feeling of abandonment by God continues (vv. 14, 16-17), and the fear of death under God's wrath continues (v. 15). The psalm ends (v. 18) with an echo of v. 8: my beloved and my friend will continue to shun me, and my companions (as in v. 8, the people from whom the psalmist might have expected help and sympathy) have become darkness (and not the light that is needed). This somber word, "darkness," is the last word in the psalm; and yet, as the preceding notes argue, even this does not mean that the ultimate outcome will be totally bleak. The faithful know that there is no alternative but to keep seeking the Lord in prayer.