LXXXVIII. “If you listen,” says Lord Bacon, “to David’s harp, you will hear as many hearse-like airs as carols.” But even among these this psalm stands alone and peculiar for the sadness of its tragic tone. From beginning to end — with the one exception of the word “salvation” in the first line — t... [ Continue Reading ]
GRAVE. — _Sheôl._ Here, as in Psalms 6:4; Psalms 33:19; Isaiah 38:10, there comes into prominence the thought that death severs the covenant relation with God, and so presents an irresistible reason why prayer should be heard now before it is too late.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A MAN... — Rather, _like a hero whose strength is gone. _... [ Continue Reading ]
FREE AMONG THE DEAD... — So the old versions without exception, taking _chaphshî_ as an adjective, as in Job 3:19 (where used of _an emancipated slave_); 1 Samuel 17:25 (_free from public burdens_). So of the _separate_ house for lepers, who were _cut off_ from society (2 Kings 15:5). Hence some ref... [ Continue Reading ]
LOWEST PIT. — See Note, Psalms 86:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOU HAST AFFLICTED. — Literally, _And thou hast pressed_ (_me_)_ down with all thy breakers,_ supplying the object, and taking the accusative in the text as the instrument, as in Psalms 102:23, where the same verb is used (Authorised Version, “weakened”).... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM SHUT UP. — Not necessarily an actual imprisonment or incarceration on account of leprosy, but another figurative way of describing great trouble. Job 19:8 seems to have been before the poet.... [ Continue Reading ]
MOURNETH. — Rather, _fadeth,_ or _pineth._ So a Latin poet of the effects of weeping: — “Mæsta neque assiduo tabescere lumina fletu. Cessarent, tristique imbre madere genæ.” CATULLUS: xxviii. 55.... [ Continue Reading ]
(10-12) These verses probably contain the prayer tittered with the “stretched-out hands.”... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL THE DEAD ARISE? ... — These words are not to be taken in the sense of a final resurrection as we understand it. The hope of this had hardly yet dawned on Israel. The underworld is imagined as a vast sepulchre in which the dead lie, each in his place, silent and motionless, and the poet asks ho... [ Continue Reading ]
LOVINGKINDNESS. — Better here, _covenant grace._ The grave knew nothing of this. Death severed the covenant relationship. So “faithfulness,” “wonders,” “righteousness” are all used in their limited sense as determined by the covenant.... [ Continue Reading ]
In these verses appear three prominent features of the Hebrew conception of the underworld. It is a place of “destruction” (comp. Job 26:6; Job 28:22), of “darkness” (comp. Psalms 88:6), and of “forgetfulness,” which may imply not only that the dead are forgotten, both of God and men (comp. Psalms 3... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT UNTO THEE ... — Better, _But as for me, I,_ &c. The pronoun is emphatic. The speaker has _not_ gone down to the land where all is silent and forgotten, and can therefore still cry to God, and send his prayer to meet (prevent, _i.e._ go to meet; see Psalms 17:13) the Divine Being who still has an... [ Continue Reading ]
CASTEST THOU OFF. — The idea is that of throwing away something with loathing. (Comp. Psalms 43:2.)... [ Continue Reading ]
TERRORS. — Another of the many expressions which connect this psalm with the book of Job. (See Job 6:4; Job 9:34, &c.) DISTRACTED. — The Hebrew word is peculiar to the place. The ancient versions all agree in taking it as a verb, and rendering it by some general term denoting “trouble.” But the con... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE CUT ME OFF. — Or, _extinguished_ me. The form of the verb is very peculiar, and is variously explained. All that is certain is that it is intensive, expressing the hopeless and continued state of prostration of the sufferer. The LXX., “have frightened.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY — _i.e.,_ the terrors or horrors, now likened to a flood, a figure of frequent occurrence. (See Psalms 18:16, &c.)... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MINE ACQUAINTANCE INTO DARKNESS. — This is an erroneous rendering. Rather, _My acquaintance is darkness,_ or, _darkness is my friend,_ having taken the place of those removed. The feeling resembles Job 17:14; or we may illustrate by Tennyson’s lines: — “O sorrow, wilt thou live with me, No cas... [ Continue Reading ]