Psalm 88:1-19

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

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 88:10-18

In these verses, I. The psalmist expostulates with God concerning the present deplorable condition he was in (Ps. 88:10-12): ?Wilt thou do a miraculous work to the dead, and raise them to life again? Shall those that are dead and buried rise up to praise thee? No; they leave it to their children to rise up in their room to praise God; none expects that they should do it; and wherefore should they rise, wherefore should they live, but to praise God? The life we are born to at first, and the... 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

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 88:5

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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 88:6

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; though he continued in it not so long as to see corruption; from that prison and judgment he was quickly taken, Psalm 16:10 , "in darkness"; both corporeal and spiritual, Matthew 27:45 , and it... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 88:7

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 so to them; see Psalm 38:1 , but the wrath of God did really lie with all the effects of it upon Christ, as the surety of his people, when he was made sin, and a curse for them; see Psalm... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Psalms 88:8

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 be deprived of them; and oftentimes in distress and adversity they drop and fail, which is an additional trouble: this was the ease of Job and of David, Job 19:13 and here of Heman, who... read more

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