Psalm 88  The psalmist cries out with desperation and grief.  Here is a picture of life without God. A spiritually dead man.
v3 A troubled soul  and a nearness to death
v4 Weakness and obscurity
v5 Forsaken
v6 Dark
v7 Afflicted
v8 Alone and hated and imprisoned
v9 Blinded and begging
v15 Terrified and overcome
v16 Destroyed
v17 Drowning
v18 Isolated

We are all in this position until we become like the psalmist and cry out to God for help.  We must realize the depth of our sinfulness and how really desperate we are without Him.  Only then will we pray with fervent hearts for the help that we all desperately need. For only He can rescue us from the pit.
Prayer includes:
v1 Praying to the One who alone is able to help, " O Lord, the God of my salvation,"   It is to Jehovah, the self-existent One, the I AM, who has revealed Himself to us, that we come.  He is God, the only True Elohim - Creator, Master, Sovereign, Covenant making God.
 The psalmist cries out "by day and in the night before Thee".   If we are truly desperate for help we will not cease praying to the One Who is able to help us.  Earnest, fervent prayer is continual prayer from the heart. 
v2 Earnest prayer comes from a posture of humility.  The psalmist requests that God allow his prayers to "come before" Him,  "Incline Thine ear to my cry!"  We cannot make God listen, but we can ask that He will.  He tells us that when we seek Him with all our heart we will find Him.
v3-9  The psalmist confesses his needs.  His situation is desperate.  But he knows that The Lord is His only hope. "I have called upon Thee every day, O Lord; I have spread out my hands to Thee."
He has no other hope and no other plan.  There is no other way.  Jesus said that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  We must know that and agree ( confess) that this is our situation too. 
v10-12 The psalmist asks a series of questions that appeal to the Lord's mercy and remembers the Lord's goodness.  It is the Lord God alone Who : performs wonders, receives praise, is loving and kind, faithful and righteous.  The dead do not declare these things, only the living do.  The spiritually dead do not know the greatness of the Lord's character.  But those made alive in Christ do!  And we must declare how great and wonderful He is!!!!
v13 "But I, O Lord, have cried out to Thee for help, and in the morning my prayer comes before Thee."  A statement of faith in the middle of a desperate plea.  By faith we come to our God, our only Hope, our Refuge and Fortress, our God in Whom we trust.

Father in Heaven, Your Word is Truth. It is living and active.  I am amazed as Your Holy Spirit opens my eyes to that truth. Here in this psalm I have found a key to earnest prayer.  James told us that "The effective (earnest) prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much." Elijah prayed earnestly and great things happened.  Our prayers sometimes are trite and meaningless.  We do not know our need to pray unless we know that we are desperately in need.  Open our eyes to this Truth.  We need You.  You are the air we breathe and our daily bread. In You is Life and without You we are withered branches that will be cut off and burned.  I seek You Lord, I come to You and confess my great need for You today.  Thank You for allowing my prayer to come before You.  In the Name of the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Genesis 8  God "remembered Noah".   He closed the floodgates, stopped the rain, sent a wind, and made the water start to subside.  It was still a long time before Noah and his family and all the animals could leave the ark.  When they finally were allowed off the boat the first thing Noah did was to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to the Lord.  God promised that He would never again destroy every living thing as He did during the flood.  He also promised that we would always have seedtime, harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night... as long as the earth exists.   He also reminded Noah that a man's heart is inclined towards evil.  It is a reality.  We are all in the same pot. In the same desperate situation that the psalmist talked about many, many years later.  So thankful for a God who "remembers" us!  

Keep us occupied with Yourself today, through all the activities that seek to run our lives.  May we know our need for You and seek to walk with You each moment. Amen