Pray when you feel bad.

But I, O LORD, cry to you;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

Psalm 88:13

Psalm 88 is known as an “individual lament”. The only positive takeaways are this verse, the end of verse 9 which is also a commitment to pray, and the opening two verses which reveal a lamenting person praying and asking God to hear their prayers.

Every other part of this psalm is a depressing list of the pain of soul in which the lamenting person exists. Theirs is a soul that feel dead to joy, close to dying (Psalm 88:3-7). This is an overwhelming heaviness of soul, bearing feelings of God’s wrath, perhaps because of a sin committed against God as they wrestle with their guilt.

The lamenting person feels alone with no human companions to understand the pain they uniquely know (Psalm 88:8, 18). This brings a litany of questions to mind that are asked of God (Psalm 88:10-14). Do the dead know how to praise God? Do they remember His grace and faithfulness? Why had God hidden Himself and seemingly forgotten the pain for the lamenting person? The pain creates the questions.

These are all feelings, though. And in these bad feelings the soul in distress, filled with doubts of God’s faithfulness, overwhelmed by pain and emotion, feeling all alone, does the only spiritual act left... prayer. And when bad feelings overwhelm us, the best outlet we have is prayer to God. We let God know how it feels. We ask our questions, speak our pain, and start moving back to faith by prayer.