A Prayer for Sunday Worship: The Dark Night of the Soul
For the past several months, each Sunday I have shared A Prayer for Sunday Worship. Often they are biblical prayers. Frequently they are biblical or historical praises.
Today I share a lament. 
Some might wonder, “A lament? For Sunday Worship!”
Why not?
Numerically there are more psalms of lament and complaint than psalms of thanksgiving and praise.
Why does much of modern Christianity shy away from what the Bible boldly proclaims—lament?
So, today’s Prayer for Sunday Worship is a lament psalm. Psalm 88 has been called The Psalm of the Dark Night of the Soul. It speaks from the depths of the heart and from the abyss of a fallen world.
Psalm 88
1 O LORD, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you.
2 May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry.
3 For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like a man without strength.
5 I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care.
6 You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
7 Your wrath lies heavily upon me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape;
9 my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, O LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do those who are dead rise up and praise you? Selah
11 Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction?
12 Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
13 But I cry to you for help, O LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me?
15 From my youth I have been afflicted and close to death; I have suffered your terrors and am in despair.
16 Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me.
17 All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me.
18 You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend.
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I am not a Christian, but I must say I have never before read any religious text that I could relate to so completely. As though my soul had written it. On some level it comforted me, knowing that these feelings and this hurt has been felt by others too. That I am not alone in this pain. So thank you for sharing this.
I’m in a deep process of refinement that seems never ending and becomes more challenging the longer I am on this journey. I am a Vietnam Veteran with 32 years of recovery. the deeper I go the more difficult the terrain.
The “dark nights of the soul” just keep coming. I pray that I can endure each of these so that when breaks I’ll be available for service.