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Psalms 88:3
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A Prayer for Help in Despondency

A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the Chief Musician. Set to “Mahalath Leannoth.” A Contemplation of Heman the Ezrahite.

1 O Lord, aGod of my salvation,
I have cried out day and night before You. 
2 Let my prayer come before You;
1Incline Your ear to my cry. 
3 For my soul is full of troubles,
And my life adraws near to the grave. 
4 I am counted with those who ago down to the pit;
bI am like a man who has no strength, 
5 1Adrift among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in the grave,
Whom You remember no more,
And who are cut off from Your hand. 
6 You have laid me in the lowest pit,
In darkness, in the depths.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
And You have afflicted me with all aYour waves. Selah 
8 aYou have1 put away my acquaintances far from me;
You have made me an abomination to them;
bI am shut up, and I cannot get out; 
Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
<< Psalms 88:2   Psalms 88:4 >>


Psalms 88:3

For my soul is full of troubles - I am full of trouble. The word rendered as "full" means properly to satiate as with food; that is, when as much had been taken as could be. So he says here, that this trouble was as great as he could bear; he could sustain no more. He had reached the utmost point of endurance; he had no power to bear anymore.

And my life draweth nigh unto the grave - Hebrew, to Sheol. Compare the notes at Isaiah 14:9; notes at Job 10:21-22. It may mean here either the grave, or the abode of the dead. He was about to die. Unless he found relief he must go down to the abodes of the dead. The Hebrew word rendered life is in the plural number, as in Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:14, Genesis 3:17; Genesis 6:17; Genesis 7:15; et al. Why the plural was used as applicable to life cannot now be known with certainty. It may have been to accord with the fact that man has two kinds of life; the animal life - or life in common with the inferior creation; and intellectual, or higher life - the life of the soul. Compare the notes at I Thessalonians 5:23. The meaning here is, that he was about to die; or that his life or lives approached that state when the grave closes over us; the extinction of the mere animal life; and the separation of the soul - the immortal part - from the body.


 
<< Psalms 88:2   Psalms 88:4 >>

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