Psalms 88:5

Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand. FREE AMONG THE DEAD - i:e., severed from thy service. Compare as to the slave at death, Job 3:19, 'there the servant is free from his master.' As God's service is the highest happiness, so to be "free" from it is the worst of evils. A servant sometimes prefers to freedom the service of even an earthly master who is kind (Deuteronomy 15:16). Much more is liberty from God, our heavenly Master, to be deprecated (Psalms 86:16; Matthew 11:29;...

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 off from the world. The refined interpretation of Augustine, that Christ is here described, and that he is said to be free among the dead, because he obtained the victory over death by a special privilege, that it might not have dominion over him, has no connection with the meaning of the passage. (510) The prophet is rather to be understood as affirming, that having finished the course of this present life, his mind had become disengaged from all worldly solicitude; his afflictions having deprived him of all feeling. (511) In the next place, comparing himself with those w

1-9 The first words of the psalmist are the only words of comfort and support in this psalm. Thus greatly may good men be afflicted, and such dismal thoughts may they have about their afflictions, and such dark conclusion may they make about their end, through the power of melancholy and the weakness of faith. He complained most of God's displeasure. Even the children of God's love may sometimes think themselves children of wrath and no outward trouble can be so hard upon them as that. Probably the psalmist described his own case, yet he leads to Christ. Thus are we called to look unto Jesus, wounded and bruised for our iniquities. But the wrath of God poured the greatest bitterness into his cup. This weighed him down into darkness and the deep....

Verse Psalms 88:5. _FREE AMONG THE DEAD_] במתים צפשי _bammethim chophshi_, I rather think, means _stripped among the dead_. Both the _fourth_ and _fifth_ verses seem to allude to a _field of battle_: the _slain_ and the _wounded_, are found scattered over the plain; the _spoilers_ come among them, and strip, not only the _dead_, but those also who appear to be _mortally wounded_, and cannot recover, and are so feeble as not to be able to resist. Hence the psalmist says, "I am counted with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength," Psalms 88:4. And I am stripped among the dead, like the mortally wounded (חללים _chalalim_) that lie in the grave. "Free among the dead," _inter mortuos liber_, has been applied by the fathers t...

FREE AMONG THE DEAD - Luther renders this, “I lie forgotten among the dead.” DeWette renders it, “Pertaining to the dead - (den Todten angehorend) - stricken down, like the slain, I lie in the grave,” and explains it as meaning, “I am as good as dead.” The word rendered “free” - חפשׁי _chophshı̂y_ - means properly, according to Gesenius (Lexicon), (1) prostrate, weak, feeble; (2) free, as opposed to a slave or a captive; (3) free from public taxes or burdens. The word is translated “free” in Exodus 21:2, Exodus 21:5,Exodus 2

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

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 labour, and removed from all company and society; he thought himself quite neglected, of whom there was no more care and notice taken than of a dead man: LIKE THE SLAIN THAT LIE IN THE GRAVE, WHOM THOU REMEMBEREST NO MORE; in a providential way, as in life, to clothe them, and feed them, and protect and preserve them; in which sense God is said to be mindful of men, Psalms 8:4, who when dead have no need to be minded, and remembered in such a manner; otherwise God does remember the dead, and takes care of their dust, and will raise them again; and especially he remembers his own people,

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