Psalms 88:16

Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off. THY TERRORS HAVE CUT ME OFF - the same Hebrew ( tsimtuwtuniy (H6789)) as in Leviticus 25:23, where God saith, "the land shall not be sold for cutting off (margin), because the land is mine. Yet thy terrors are so utterly cutting ME off, who am thy property, that there can be no redemption of it, unless thou dost, speedily interpose. The Hebrew form of 'cut off' is reduplicated here to intensify the force....

10-18 Departed souls may declare God's faithfulness, justice, and lovingkindness; but deceased bodies can neither receive God's favours in comfort, nor return them in praise. The psalmist resolved to continue in prayer, and the more so, because deliverance did not come speedily. Though our prayers are not soon answered, yet we must not give over praying. The greater our troubles, the more earnest and serious we should be in prayer. Nothing grieves a child of God so much as losing sight of him; nor is there any thing he so much dreads as God's casting off his soul. If the sun be clouded, that darkens the earth; but if the sun should leave the earth, what a dungeon would it be! Even those designed for God's favours, may for a time suffer his terrors. See how deep those terrors wounded the psalmist. If friends are put far from us by providences, or death, we have reason to look upon it as...

Verse Psalms 88:16. _THY FIERCE WRATH GOETH OVER ME._] It is a mighty flood by which I am overwhelmed....

THY FIERCE WRATH GOETH OVER ME - Like waters. See Psalms 88:7. THY TERRORS HAVE CUT ME OFF - That is, I am as one already dead; I am so near to death that I may be spoken of as dead....

EXPOSITION THE most mournful of all the psalms. After one almost formal "word of trust" (_Psalms 88:1_), the remainder is a continuous bitter cry of complaint, rising at times into expostulation (Psalms 88:10), and almost into reproach (Psalms 88:14). The tone is that of the earlier complaints of Job; and Job has been supposed by some to be the writer. But this is highly improbable. We may accept the statement of the title, that the monody was written by Heman the Ezrahite, who was a contemporary of. Solomon (1 Kings 4:31). It has no appearance of being composed at a time of national affliction. All

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 God, and out of his sight; as sometimes the Lord's people are ready to imagine, when forsaken by him, Psalms 31:22 or from the land of the living, as the Messiah was, and in a judicial way, though not for any sin of his own, Isaiah 53:8. h חרוניך "irae tuae", Pagninus, Montanus; "furores tui", Musculus, Tigurine version....

A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahaloth Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. I think that this is the darkest of all the Psalms; it has hardly a spot of light in it. The only bright words that I know of are in the first verse the rest of the Psalm is very dark, and very dreary. Why, then, am I going to read it? Because, it may be, there is some poor heart here that is very heavy; you cannot tell out of this great crowd how many sorrowing and burdened spirits there may be amongst us; but there may be a dozen or two of persons who are driven almost to despair. My dear friend, if this is your case, I want you to know that somebody else has been just where you are. Remember how the shipwrecked man upon the lonely island all of a sudden came upon the footprints of another human being; so here, on the lone island of despondency, you shall be able to trace...

Psalms 88 The Deepest Soul Misery Poured Out _ 1. In deepest misery and distress (Psalms 88:1)_ 2. Crying and no answer (Psalms 88:8) This is a Maschil Psalm by Heman the Ezrahite. See 1 Kings 4:31; 1 Chronicles 6:33; 1Ch 6:44; 1 Chronicles 25:4. It is a Psalm of deepest distress, picturing the darkest experience with no ray of light or word of comfort. That it describes the real experience of a saint no one would doubt. But in it w

LXXXVIII. A LEPER'S PRAYER. This Ps. has striking peculiarities. The suffering here portrayed has been long and terrible. The Psalmist has been tormented by sickness from his youth (Psalms 88:15). Yahweh has put lover and friend away from him. This seclusion was, no doubt, due to leprosy, which was a living death, separating a man from his dearest. The malady was supposed to come directly from God: it was His stroke _par excellence._ The Psalmist mentions no enemies, he confesses no sin, he pleads no merits. Nor does he draw comfort from the thought of an afterlife. On the contrary, he shares the common belief in Sheol (Psalms 88:10). But he still holds to his faith in God, and assumes (Psalms 88:14) that there is

OVER ME. Same word as "upon me", Psalms 88:7....