Psalms 88:6

Psa 88:6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

Ver. 6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit] In cisterna infimorum, in the deepest dungeon, in lutoso lacu, such as Jeremiah was cast into, Jer 37:15-16

In the deeps] In voraginibus, out of which none escapes, nothing can be buoyed up, as they call it.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 88:6-7. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, &c. — In hopeless and remediless calamities. Thus greatly may good men be afflicted, and such dismal apprehensions may they have concerning their afflictions, and such dark conclusions may they sometimes be ready to make concerning the issue of them, through the power of melancholy, and the weakness of faith. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me — The sense of thy wrath, or rather, the effects of it, as the next clause explains it. Thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves — With thy judgments breaking in furiously upon me, like the waves of the sea.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

7. (Psa 88:6) Thou hast placed me in a deep pit, in dark places, in abysses. A deep pit, literally a pit of low or under places. See above, on Psa 63:9; Psa 86:13, and compare Eze 26:20. The dark places are those of the invisible and lower world. Abysses, deeps, or depths of water. See above, on Psa 69:2

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

88:6-7 In his first charge, the psalmist blames the Lord for his demise. God’s overpowering anger did not make sense. • The phrase the darkest depths implies the place of the dead (143:3; see Lam 3:6) or the depths of the sea (Pss 68:22; 69:1-2).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit. The Psalmist now acknowledges more distinctly, that whatever adversities he endured proceeded from the Divine hand. Nor indeed will any man sincerely betake himself to God to seek relief without a previous persuasion that it is the Divine hand which smites him, and that nothing happens by chance. It is observable that the nearer the prophet approaches God the more is his grief embittered; for nothing is more dreadful to the saints than the judgment of God.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(6) Lowest pit.—See Note, Psa_86:13.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Thou hast laid me] God is treating him as though he were actually dead. The same word is used in the same connexion in Psa_49:14.

in the lowest pit] The nether world in the depths of the earth. Cp. Psa_86:13; Psa_63:9; Lam_3:55. The Targum explains it allegorically of the Exile. “Thou hast placed me in exile which is like the nether pit.” in darkness] R.V. in dark places. So Sheol is described in Psa_143:3; Lam_3:6. Cp. Job_10:21-22.

in the deeps] A word generally used of the depths of the sea: here metaphorically of the depths of misery (Psa_69:15; cp. Lam_3:54), or as another synonym for Sheol, which was supposed to be situated below the sea. Cp. Psa_71:20; Job_26:5.

The LXX and Syr. however read ‘shadow of death’ or ‘deep gloom’ (Psa_44:19, note). This reading only implies a transposition of the consonants in the Heb. text, and is supported by the parallel passage in Job_10:21-22, which seems to be in the Psalmist’s mind.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, Psa 16:10, "in darkness"; both corporeal and spiritual, Mat 27:45, and it is in the Hebrew text "in darknesses" (k), denoting both:

in the deeps; in the deep waters of affliction, sorrows, and sufferings; see Psa 69:1. The allusion is to a dark and deep pit, under ground, such as in the eastern countries they used to put their captives and prisoners into in the night, and take them out in the morning; and which custom continues still among the Turks. Leo Africanus (l) says he has seen three thousand Christian captives together, clothed in a woollen sack, and chained to one another; and in the night put into pits or ditches under ground; see Zac 9:11.

(k) "in loca tenebrosa", Tigurine version, Musculus; "in tenebrosissimis", Junius & Tremellius; "in densis tenebris", Piscator; "in caligines, vel obscuritates", Gejerus. (l) Descriptio Africae, l. 3. p. 413.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit - That is, I am as if I were thus laid; the deep grave seems now to lie so certainly before me, that it may be spoken of as if it were already my abode. The words rendered “lowest pit” mean literally the pit under, or beneath. The reference is to the sepulchre, as in Psa 88:4.

In darkness - The dark grave; the realms of the dead. See the notes at Job 10:21-22.

In the deeps - The caverns; the deep places of the earth or the sea. All these expressions are designed to convey the idea that he was near the grave; that there was no hope for him; that he must die. Perhaps also there is connected with this the idea of trouble, of anguish, of sorrow; of that mental darkness of which the grave was an image, and into which he was plunged by the prospect of death. The whole scene was a sad one, and he was overwhelmed with grief, and saw only the prospect of continued sorrow and gloom. Even a good man may be made afraid - may have his mind made sad and sorrowful - by the prospect of dying. See Isa. 38. Death is naturally gloomy; and when the light of religion does not shine upon the soul, and its comforts do not fill the heart, it is but natural that the mind should be full of gloom.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Either, first, in the grave; the same thing being expressed in divers words; or, secondly, in hopeless and remediless calamities.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. What a collection of forcible metaphors, each one expressive of the utmost grief. Heman compared his forlorn condition to an imprisonment in a subterranean dungeon, to confinement in the realms of the dead, and to a plunge into the abyss. None of the similes are strained. The mind can descend far lower than the body, for it there are bottomless pits. The flesh can bear only a certain number of wounds and no more, but the soul can bleed in ten thousand ways, and die over and over again each hour. It is grievous to the good man to see the Lord whom he loves laying him in the sepulchre of despondency; piling nightshade upon him, putting out all his candles, and heaping over him solid masses of sorrow; evil from so good a hand seems evil indeed, and yet if faith could but be allowed to speak she would remind the depressed spirit that it is better to fall into the hand of the Lord than into the hands of man, and moreover she would tell the despondent heart that God never placed a Joseph in a pit without drawing him up again to fill a throne; that he never caused a horror of great darkness to fall upon an Abraham without revealing his covenant to him; and never cast even a Jonah into the deeps without preparing the means to land him safely on dry land. Alas, when under deep depression the mind forgets all this, and is only conscious of its unutterable misery; the man sees the lion but not the honey in its carcass, he feels the thorns but he cannot smell the roses which adorn them. He who now feebly expounds these words knows within himself more than he would care or dare to tell of the abysses of inward anguish. He has sailed round the Cape of Storms, and has drifted along by the dreary headlands of despair. He has groaned out with one of old"My bones are pierced in me in the night season; and my sinews take no rest. I go morning without the sun. Terrors are turned upon me, they pursue my soul as the wind." Those who know this bitterness by experience will sympathise, but from others it would be idle to expect pity, nor would their pity be worth the having if it could be obtained. It is an unspeakable consolation that our Lord Jesus knows this experience, right well, having, with the exception of the sin of it, felt it all and more than all in Gethsemane when he was exceeding sorrowful even unto death.

Ver. 6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, etc. He expands his meaning by another similitude. For he compares himself to a captive who has been cast into a deep, foul, dark, and slimy pit, where he is shut up and plunged in filth and darkness, having not a remnant of hope and life; after the manner of Jeremiah's sufferings. Jer 37:1-21. By this simile he means that he was in the greatest anxieties and sorrows of mind, destitute of every hope and sense of consolation, and that the terrors of death continually increased and augmented. Mollerus.

Ver. 6. When a saint is under terrible impressions of Jehovah's infinite wrath, he cannot but be under great horror of conscience, and in perplexing depths of mental trouble. The sense which he hath of avenging wrath, occasions a conflict in his spirit, inexpressibly agonizing and terrible. When his troubled conscience is inflamed, by a sense of the fiery indignation of God Almighty, the more be thinks of him as his infinite enemy, the more he is dismayed: every thought of Him, brings doleful tidings, and pours oil upon the raging flame. Trouble of conscience for sin, is indeed very disquieting; but, a sense of the vindictive wrath of God, kindled in the conscience, is still more dreadful. No words can express the direful anguish, which the disconsolate soul then feels. The Christian cannot at that time think so much as one quiting, one cheering thought. What he first thinks of is tormenting to his wounded spirit: he changes that thought for another, and that is still more tormenting. He finds himself entangled, as in the midst of a thicket of thorns so that, which way soever he turns himself, he is pierced and grieved afresh. This dismal thought often arises in his troubled mind, That if death were, in his present condition, to surprise and cut him off, he should sink forever and ever, under the intolerable wrath of the infinite Jehovah. The most exquisite torment of body is almost nothing, in comparison of the anguish of his spirit at such times. Oh! how inconceivable is the anguish, the agony, especially of a holy soul, when it is conflicting with the tremendous wrath of the eternal God! The bodily torture even of crucifixion, could not extort from the holy Jesus the smallest sigh or complaint; but the sense of his Father's wrath in his soul, wrung from him that doleful outcry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" John Colquhoun, in "A Treatise on Spiritual Comfort." 1814.

Ver. 6-7.

1. What the afflictions of the people of God appear to be to themselves.

(a) Extreme, "laid me in the lowest pit."

(b) Inexplicable, "in darkness."

(c) Humiliating, "in the deeps."

(d) Severe, "thy wrath lieth hard."

(e) Exhaustive, "afflicted with all thy waves."

2. What they are in reality.

(a) Not extreme but light.

(b) Not inexplicable, but according to the will of God.

(c) Not humiliating, but elevating. "Humble yourselves

under", etc.

(d) Not severe but gentle. Not in anger but in love.

(e) Not exhaustive but partial. Not all thy waves, but a

few ripples only. The slight motion in the harbour

when there is a boisterous ocean beyond. G.R.

Psalms 88:7*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit—In Psa_88:4-5, he was already in the pit and in sheol. Here, in the “lowest” or deepest pit.

In darkness— The pit is so deep that the daylight is shut out.

In the deeps—The depths of the ocean are intended, (as in Neh_9:11; Job_41:31; Psa_107:24,) to the Hebrew always a mystery and a terror. But the psalmist might have comforted himself by the promise of Psa_68:22. Compare “lowest sheol” and “lower parts of the earth.” Psalm 67:9; Psa_86:13

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit. The affliction whereof the psalmist complains has come direct from the hand of Cod. It is some severe stroke of illness which has brought him to his last gasp. The "lowest pit" is here metaphorical the deepest depth of calamity. In darkness; literally, in darknesses, where no ray of thy favour shines upon me. In the deeps. (comp. Psa_69:2, "deep waters, where the floods overflow him

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

among the dead, who are free I am among the dead, free from the world, and like the slain, who are free from the world.

and who were cut off by Your hand By Your blows, they were cut off from the world.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.