Psalms 88:1

A Cry of Desperation

1

A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. For the choir director: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

1 Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.

Psalms 88:1 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 88:1

O Lord God of my salvation
The author both of temporal and spiritual salvation; see ( Psalms 18:46 ) ( 24:5 ) 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 Father, still called him his God, and believed that he would help him, ( Psalms 22:1 ) ( Isaiah 1:7-9 ) .

I have cried day and night before thee,
or "in the day I have cried, and in the night before thee"; that is, as the Targum paraphrases it,

``in the night my prayer was before thee.''

prayer being expressed by crying shows the person to be in distress, denotes the earnestness of it, and shows it to be vocal; and it being both in the day and in the night, that it was without ceasing. The same is said by Christ, ( Psalms 22:2 ) and is true of him, who in the days of his flesh was frequent in prayer, and especially in the night season, ( Luke 6:12 ) ( 21:37 ) and particularly his praying in the garden the night he was betrayed may be here referred to, ( Matthew 26:38 Matthew 26:39 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (twnel tlxm le) "pro infirmitate ad affligendum", so some in Munster; "de miseria ad affligendum", Tigurine version; "de infirmitate affligente", Piscator, so Gussetius, p. 622.
F2 Works, vol. 1. p. 699.
F3 Tractat. Theolog. Politic. c. 10. p. 184.
F4 Apud Meor Enayim, c. 32. p. 106.

Psalms 88:1 In-Context

1 Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out before You day and night.

2 May my prayer reach Your presence; listen to my cry.

3 For I have had enough troubles, and my life is near Sheol.

4 I am counted among those going down to the Pit. I am like a man without strength,

5 abandoned among the dead. I am like the slain lying in the grave, whom You no longer remember, and who are cut off from Your care.