INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 88 A SONG [OR] PSALM FOR THE SONS OF KORAH, TO THE CHIEF MUSICIAN UPON MAHALATH LEANNOTH, MASCHIL OF HEMAN THE EZRAHITE. Of the word "maalath", Psalms 53:1. "Leannoth" signifies "to answer". Perhaps this song was to be sung alternately, or by responses. Both words are thought... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD GOD OF MY SALVATION,.... The author both of temporal and spiritual salvation; see Psalms 18:46 from the experience the psalmist had had of the Lord's working salvation for him in times past, he is encouraged to hope that he would appear for him, and help him out of his present distress; his f... [ Continue Reading ]
LET MY PRAYER COME BEFORE THEE,.... Not before men, as hypocrites desire, but before the Lord; let it not be shut out, but be admitted; and let it come with acceptance, as it does when it ascends before God, out of the hands of the angel before the throne, perfumed with the much incense of his media... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR MY SOUL IS FULL OF TROUBLES,.... Or "satiated or glutted" e with them, as a stomach full of meat that can receive no more, to which the allusion is; having been fed with the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, so that he had his fill of trouble: every man is full of trouble, of one k... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM COUNTED WITH THEM THAT GO DOWN INTO THE PIT,.... With the dead, with them that are worthy of death, with malefactors that are judicially put to death, and are not laid in a common grave, but put into a pit together: thus Christ was reckoned and accounted of by the Jews; the sanhedrim counted hi... [ Continue Reading ]
FREE AMONG THE DEAD,.... If he was a freeman, it was only among the dead, not among the living; if he was free of any city, it was of the city of the dead; he looked upon himself as a dead man, as one belonging to the state of the dead, who are free from all relations, and from all business and labo... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST LAID ME IN THE LOWEST PIT,.... The Targum interprets it of "captivity which was like unto the lowest pit;'' and so Jarchi and Kimchi. Some understand it of a prison or dungeon, into which the psalmist was put; it may be interpreted of the pit of the grave, into which Christ was laid; tho... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WRATH LIETH HARD UPON ME,.... So some good men apprehend, when they are under afflictive dispensations of Providence, and are left of God, and have not his immediate presence, and the discoveries of his love; though fury is not in him, nor does any wrath in reality fall upon them, only it seems... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST PUT AWAY MINE ACQUAINTANCE FAR FROM ME,.... His familiar friends, who were well known to him, and he to them: it is a mercy and privilege to have good acquaintance, and hearty faithful friends, to converse and advise with, whether about things civil or religious; and it is an affliction to... [ Continue Reading ]
MINE EYE MOURNETH BY REASON OF AFFLICTION,.... Or dropped tears, as the Targum, by which grief was vented; see Psalms 6:7. LORD, I HAVE CALLED DAILY UPON THEE, I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS UNTO THEE; in prayer, as the Targum adds, this being a prayer gesture: notwithstanding his troubles continued... [ Continue Reading ]
WILT THOU SHOW WONDERS TO THE DEAD?.... The Lord does show wonders to some that are spiritually dead, dead in Adam, dead in law, dead in trespasses and sins, by quickening them; whereby the wonders of his grace and love, and of his power, and the exceeding greatness of it, are displayed; for the con... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL THY LOVINGKINDNESS BE DECLARED IN THE GRAVE?.... Where he saw himself now going, and where should he be detained, and not raised out of it, the lovingkindness of God to him, as his Son, and as man and Mediator, and to his people in the gift and mission of him to be their Saviour and Redeemer,... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL THY WONDERS BE KNOWN IN THE DARK?.... A description of the grave again; see Job 10:21, The sense may be, should he continue in the dark and silent grave, how would the wonders of the grace of God, of electing, redeeming, justifying, pardoning, and adopting grace, be made known; the wonders of... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT UNTO THEE HAVE I CRIED, O LORD,.... Formerly, and had been heard, answered, and relieved, and which was an encouragement to cry again to him in his distress; Christ was always heard, John 11:42, or, now, in his present case, yet was not heard, at least not immediately answered; which was the cas... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, WHY CASTEST THOU OFF MY SOUL?.... Here begins his prayer, which he determined to present early in the morning, and consists of expostulations, and a representation of his distressed case: this shows that he was under soul desertion, and which was what so greatly afflicted him; imagining that h... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM AFFLICTED,.... In body and mind, from within and from without, by Satan, by the men of the world, and by the Lord himself; which is the common lot of God's people, Psalms 34:19 and was the case of the Messiah, who was afflicted both with the tongues and hands of men, by words, by blows, and by... [ Continue Reading ]
THY FIERCE WRATH GOETH OVER ME,.... Or "wraths" h, burning wrath; the whole of divine wrath, in all its fierceness, due to the sins of his people: these, like the mighty waves of the sea, passed over him, threatening to overwhelm him, Psalms 89:38, THY TERRORS HAVE CUT ME OFF; from the presence of... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY CAME ROUND ABOUT ME DAILY LIKE WATER,.... That is, the terrors of the Lord, the sorrows of death and hell, Psalms 18:4, this was the Messiah's case, when it was with him as is expressed Psalms 69:1, THEY COMPASSED ME ABOUT TOGETHER; as waters coming from many places, from all quarters, meet t... [ Continue Reading ]
LOVER AND FRIEND HAST THOU PUT FAR FROM ME,.... This is mentioned in Psalms 88:8, and is here repeated; and the account is closed with it, to show that this was a most aggravating circumstance of his affliction, and which bore exceeding hard upon him; and this must be a very uncomfortable case, to b... [ Continue Reading ]