1_O Jehovah! God of my salvation! _Let me call upon you particularly to notice what I have just now stated, that although the prophet simply, and without hyperbole, recites the agony which he suffered from the greatness of his sorrows, yet his purpose was at the same time to supply the afflicted wit... [ Continue Reading ]
3_For my soul is filled with troubles. _These words contain the excuse which the prophet pleads for the excess of his grief. They imply that his continued crying did not proceed from softness or effeminacy of spirit, but that from a due consideration of his condition, it would be found that the imme... [ Continue Reading ]
5_Free among the dead, lie the slain who lie in the grave. _The prophet intended to express something more distressing and grievous than common death. First, he says, that _he was free among the dead, _because he was rendered unfit for all the business which engages human life, and, as it were, cut... [ Continue Reading ]
6_Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit. _The Psalmist now acknowledges more distinctly, that whatever adversities he endured proceeded from the Divine hand. Nor indeed will any man sincerely betake himself to God to seek relief without a previous persuasion that it is the Divine hand which smites him... [ Continue Reading ]
Some translate the first clause of the 7th verse, _Thy indignation hath approached upon me; _and the Hebrew word סמך, _samach, _is sometimes to be taken in this sense. But from the scope of the passage, it must necessarily be understood here, as in many other places, in the sense of _to surround, _o... [ Continue Reading ]
8_Thou hast removed my acquaintances from me. _He was now destitute of all human aid, and _that _also he attributes to the anger of God, in whose power it is either to bend the hearts of men to humanity, or to harden them, and render them cruel. This is a point well worthy of our attention; for unle... [ Continue Reading ]
9._My eye mourneth because of my affliction. _To prevent it from being supposed that he was iron-hearted, he again repeats that his afflictions were so severe and painful as to produce manifest traces of his sorrow, even in his countenance and eyes — a plain indication of the low condition to which... [ Continue Reading ]
10._Wilt thou perform a miracle for the dead? _By these words the prophet intimates, that God, if he did not make haste to succor him, would be too late, there being scarce anything betwixt him and death; and that therefore this was the critical juncture, if God was inclined to help him, for should... [ Continue Reading ]
13._But to thee have I cried, O Jehovah! _There may have been a degree of intemperateness in the language of the prophet, which, as I have granted, cannot be altogether vindicated; but still it was a sign of rare faith and piety to persevere as he did with never-failing earnestness in prayer. This i... [ Continue Reading ]
14._Wherefore, O Jehovah! wilt thou reject my soul? _These lamentations at first sight would seem to indicate a state of mind in which sorrow without any consolation prevailed; but they contain in them tacit prayers. The Psalmist does not proudly enter into debate with God, but mournfully desires so... [ Continue Reading ]
The reason why he says that _he was ready to die _(518) _from his youth, _(verse 15,) is uncertain, unless it may be considered a probable conjecture that he was severely tried in a variety of ways, so that his life, as it were, hung by a thread amidst various tremblings and fears. Whence also we ga... [ Continue Reading ]