Psalm 88:13 NIV

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Psalms 88:1-18

Psalms 88:0 Darkness and despairOvercome with trials and seeing no way out of the situation, the writer prays desperately to God (1-2). He sees himself as being close to death, with no way of being rescued (3-5). He feels as if he has been left to die by both God and friends (6-8). He wants to experience God’s saving power now, while he is still alive, for it will be too late when he is dead (9-12).Looking back, the writer sees that all his life he has had nothing but suffering, yet God still... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Psalms 88:13

prevent = come before. read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Psalms 88:13

THE CRY REPEATED; MORE DETAILS OF SORROW"But unto thee, O Jehovah, have I cried;And in the morning shall my prayer come before thee.Jehovah, why casteth thou off my soul?Why hidest thou thy face from me?I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up:While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.Thy fierce wrath is gone over me;They terrors have cut me off.They came round about me like water all the day long;They compassed me about together.Lover and friend hast thou put far from me,And mine... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Psalms 88:10-13

Psalms 88:10-13. Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead— The Psalmist in this, and the following verses, exaggerates his own distress, and the seeming impossibility of relief, by representing himself as a dead man, and his state of misery and affliction as a state of death: nor can the words be taken in the literal sense, except they be referred to Him to whom God did indeed declare his loving-kindness in the grave, and his faithfulness in death. We need not observe to the scriptural reader, that... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Psalms 88:13

13. prevent—meet—that is, he will diligently come before God for help ( :-). read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 88:1-18

Psalms 88This is one of the saddest of the psalms. One writer called it the "darkest corner of the Psalter." [Note: R. E. O. White, "Psalms," in the Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, p. 388.] It is an individual lament. It relates the prayer of a person who suffered intensely over a long time yet continued to trust in the Lord."Psalms 88 is an embarrassment to conventional faith. It is the cry of a believer (who sounds like Job) whose life has gone awry, who desperately seeks contact with... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 88:13-18

3. The sufferer’s faith 88:13-18For the third time, Heman cried out to God for help (cf. Psalms 88:1-2; Psalms 88:13). He asked for an explanation of his suffering (Psalms 88:14). Then he described his sufferings further (Psalms 88:15-18). Still, he kept turning to God in prayer, waiting for an answer and some relief."With darkness as its final word, what is the role of this psalm in Scripture? For the beginning of an answer we may note, first, its witness to the possibility of unrelieved... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 88:1-18

This is the saddest and most despairing of all the Pss. The writer is apparently the victim of some incurable disease like leprosy, with which he has been afflicted from his youth (Psalms 88:15), and which cuts him off from the society of men (Psalms 88:8, Psalms 88:18). His life is already a living death (Psalms 88:3-6), and beyond death he has no hope (Psalms 88:10-12). He traces his trouble to God’s displeasure (Psalms 88:7, Psalms 88:14, Psalms 88:16), yet it is to God that he turns in... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 88:13

(13) But unto Thee . . .—Better, But as for me, I, &c. The pronoun is emphatic. The speaker has not gone down to the land where all is silent and forgotten, and can therefore still cry to God, and send his prayer to meet (prevent, i.e. go to meet; see Psalms 17:13) the Divine Being who still has an interest in him. And this makes the expostulation of the next verses still stronger. Why, since the sufferer is still alive, is he forsaken, or seemingly forsaken, by the God of that covenant in... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Psalms 88:1-18

Psalms 88:15 St. John of the Cross in The Ascent of Mount Carmel quotes this text in its Latin form: 'Pauper sum ego et in laboribus a juventute mea'. He says that David calls himself poor although it is clear that he was rich, because his will was not set on riches, and so he was in the same state as if he had really been poor. But if he had formerly been actually poor and had not been poor in will, he would not have been truly poor, since the soul was rich and full in appetite. Obras... read more