_A prayer, containing a grievous complaint._ A Song _or_ Psalm for the sons of Korah: to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. _Title._ האזרחי להימן משׂכיל לענות מחלת על למנצח קרה למני מזמור שׂיר _Shiir mizmor libnei korach lamnatseach al machalath leannoth maski... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM AS A MAN THAT HATH NO STRENGTH— _I am become as a man that hath no substance:_ [A mere shadow without solidity.] Psalms 88:5. _Set loose among the dead:_ [Set at liberty, as it were, from under the hand, the government of God:] _Like the slain that are laid in the sepulchre, whom thou remembere... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM SHUT UP, AND I CANNOT COME FORTH— This is the description of a person confined for leprosy, which causes him to be avoided, as a subject of abhorrence even to all his friends.... [ Continue Reading ]
WILT THOU SHEW WONDERS TO THE DEAD— The Psalmist in this, and the following verses, exaggerates his own distress, and the seeming impossibility of relief, by representing himself as a dead man, and his state of misery and affliction as a state of death: nor can the words be taken in the literal sens... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM AFFLICTED, AND READY TO DIE— _I have been low and expiring from my youth: i.e._ "Even from my youth I have laboured under this misery, which now so dreadfully afflicts me.... [ Continue Reading ]
LIKE WATER— "Like floods coming from several places, and at last meeting together to inclose and swallow me up.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MINE ACQUAINTANCE INTO DARKNESS— _My acquaintance are not to be seen._ Literally, _My acquaintance a place of darkness;_ Lost in darkness; vanished out of sight. REFLECTIONS.—1. The prayer of the Psalmist is fervent and importunate. _O Lord God of my salvation,_ from whom alone I can expect reli... [ Continue Reading ]