Psalms 143:3

Cp. Psalms 7:5; Psalms 88:3-6. The last line agrees verbatim with Lamentations 3:6.

in darkness In dark places, as Psalms 88:6, probably a figure for calamity, in which he is as it were buried alive. But it is possible (cp. Psalms 142:7) that he was actually a prisoner.

as those that have been long dead And so are forgotten alike by God and man (Psalms 88:5). But the meaning may be those who are dead for ever, who will never return to life; lit. dead of eternity, cp. Jeremiah 51:39, -sleep of eternity" = perpetual sleep; Ecclesiastes 12:5, -house of eternity" = perpetual abode.