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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 88:1-9

It should seem, by the titles of this and the following psalm, that Heman was the penman of the one and Ethan of the other. There were two, of these names, who were sons of Zerah the son of Judah, 1 Chron. 2:4, 6. There were two others famed for wisdom, 1 Kgs. 4:31; where, to magnify Solomon's wisdom, he is said to be wiser than Heman and Ethan. Whether the Heman and Ethan who were Levites and precentors in the songs of Zion were the same we are not sure, nor which of these, nor whether any of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 88:1

O Lord God of my salvation ,.... The author both of temporal and spiritual salvation; see Psalm 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 faith was not so low, but that amidst all his darkness and dejection he could look upon the Lord as his God, and the God of salvation to him; so our Lord Jesus Christ, when deserted by his... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 88:2

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 mediation, Revelation 8:3 , incline thine ear unto my cry ; hearken to it, receive it, and give an answer to it; Christ's prayers were attended with strong crying, and were always received and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 88:3

For my soul is full of troubles ,.... Or "satiated or glutted" F5 שבעה "saturata", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius; "satiata", Tigurine version. 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 kind or another, Job 14:1 especially the saint, who besides his... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 88:4

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 him worthy of death; and the common people cried out Crucify him; and they did crucify him between two malefactors; and so he was numbered or counted with transgressors, and as one of them, Isaiah... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 88:1

O Lord God of my salvation - This is only the continuation of prayers and supplications already often sent up to the throne of grace. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 88:2

Let my prayer come before thee - It is weak and helpless, though fervent and sincere: take all hinderances out of its way, and let it have a free passage to thy throne. One of the finest thoughts in the Iliad of Homer concerns prayer; I shall transcribe a principal part of this incomparable passage - incomparable when we consider its origin: - Και γαρ τε Λιται εισι Διος κουραι μεγαλοιο,<-144 Χωλαι τε, ῥυσσαι τε, παραβλωπες τπ ' οφθαλμω·π Αἱ ῥα τε και μετοπισθπ ' Ατης... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 88:4

I am counted with them, etc. - I am as good as dead; nearly destitute of life and hope. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 88:1

Verse 1 1O Jehovah! God of my salvation! Let me call upon you particularly to notice what I have just now stated, that although the prophet simply, and without hyperbole, recites the agony which he suffered from the greatness of his sorrows, yet his purpose was at the same time to supply the afflicted with a form of prayer that they might not faint under any adversities, however severe, which might befall them. We will hear him by and by bursting out into vehement complaints on account of the... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 88:3

Verse 3 3For my soul is filled with troubles. These words contain the excuse which the prophet pleads for the excess of his grief. They imply that his continued crying did not proceed from softness or effeminacy of spirit, but that from a due consideration of his condition, it would be found that the immense accumulation of miseries with which he was oppressed was such as might justly extort from him these lamentations. Nor does he speak of one kind of calamity only; but of calamities so heaped... read more

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