You needed to hear that today, right?   O.K., before you click me into cyberspace, listen to what Heman the Ezrahite has to say in Psalm 88.  Who-man?  So he doesn’t immediately come to mind as one of the Most Talked About People in the Old Testament.  A wise man, he was chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the Lord when David brought the Ark to Jerusalem, and to minister in music with family members in the house of God.  He also wrote probably the saddest psalm in the Psalter, and he felt… useless.

He was an accomplished musician, he was chosen by King David to pray and perform, his family helped him in this ministry, and in wisdom, he was surpassed only by Solomon.  Not really my idea of a useless person!  So, what happened by the time he got to Psalm 88?  We don’t know.  But, we do know that, surrounded by trouble and in a life-and-death situation, he prayed.  Though darkness was his closest friend, he prayed.  Though close to death as a young person, he prayed.

Heman’s grasping for hope shows through in his reasoning, that, if a Christian’s desire while on earth is to praise the Lord, then how could a dead person praise God from the grave (vs.10,11)?  As long as he was alive, he was not useless to the Lord.

Are we ever without hope?  Not if we hope in the Lord (Psalm 42:5).  Then we are never useless to Him.