Psalms 30:3

3 you kept me from the grave. I was on my way to the depths below, but you restored my life.

Psalms 30:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 30:3

O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave
When his life being in danger, was near unto it, ( Job 33:22 Job 33:28 ) ; otherwise the soul dies not, nor does it lie and sleep in the grave; or "thou hast brought up my soul from hell" ^F13; that is, delivered him from those horrors of conscience and terrors of mind, by reason of sin, which were as hell itself unto him; see ( Psalms 116:3 ) ( Jonah 2:4 ) ;

thou hast kept me alive:
preserved his corporeal life when in danger, and maintained his spiritual life; and quickened him by his word, under all his afflictions, and kept him from utter and black despair;

that I should not go down to the pit;
either of the grave or hell. There is in this clause a "Keri" and a "Cetib"; a marginal reading, and a textual writing: according to the latter it is, "from them that go down to the pit"; which some versions ^F14 follow; that is, thou hast preserved me from going along with them, and being where and as they are: our version follows the former; the sense is the same.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (lwav Nm) "ab inferno", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
F14 So Sept. V. L. Pagninus, Musculus, Gejerus, Michaelis, Ainsworth.

Psalms 30:3 In-Context

1 I praise you, Lord, because you have saved me and kept my enemies from gloating over me.

2 I cried to you for help, O Lord my God, and you healed me;

3 you kept me from the grave. I was on my way to the depths below, but you restored my life.

4 Sing praise to the Lord, all his faithful people! Remember what the Holy One has done, and give him thanks!

5 His anger lasts only a moment, his goodness for a lifetime. Tears may flow in the night, but joy comes in the morning.

Footnotes

• [a]. the depths below: [The world of the dead (see 6.5).]