Psalm 88:3

3 For my soul is filled with troubles, and my life has drawn nigh to Hades.

Psalm 88:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 88:3

For my soul is full of troubles
Or "satiated or glutted"

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 with them, as a stomach full of meat that can receive no more, to which the allusion is; having been fed with the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, so that he had his fill of trouble: every man is full of trouble, of one kind or another, ( Job 14:1 ) especially the saint, who besides his outward troubles has inward ones, arising from indwelling sin, the temptations of Satan, and divine desertions, which was now the case of the psalmist: this may be truly applied to Christ, who himself said, when in the garden, "my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death", ( Matthew 26:38 ) , he was a man of sorrows all his days, but especially at that time, and when upon the cross, forsaken by his Father, and sustaining his wrath: "his soul" was then "filled with evil things" ^F6, as the words may be rendered:

innumerable evils compassed him about,
( Psalms 40:12 ) , the sins of his people, those evil things, were imputed to him; the iniquity of them all was laid upon him, as was also the evil of punishment for them; and then he found trouble and sorrow enough:

and my life draweth nigh unto the grave:
a phrase expressive of a person's being just ready to die, ( Job 33:22 ) as the psalmist now thought he was, ( Psalms 88:5 Psalms 88:15 ) , it is in the plural number "my lives" {g}; and so may not only denote the danger he was in of his natural life, but of his spiritual and eternal life, which he might fear, being in darkness and desertion, would be lost, though they could not; yea, that he was near to "hell" itself, for so the word ^F8 may be rendered; for when the presence of God is withdrawn, and wrath let into the conscience, a person in his own apprehension seems to be in hell as it were, or near it; see ( Jonah 2:2 ) . This was true of Christ, when he was sorrowful unto death, and was brought to the dust of it, and under divine dereliction, and a sense of the wrath of God, as the surety of his people.

F5 (hebv) "saturata", Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius; "satiata", Tigurine version.
F6 (twerb) "in malis", Pagninus, Montanus; "malis", Junius & Tremellius
F7 (yyx) "vitae meae", Montanus, Michaelis.
F8 (lwavl) "ad orcum", Cocceius; "inferno", Gejerus; "ad infernum", Michaelis; so Ainsworth.

Psalm 88:3 In-Context

1 O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried by day and in the night before thee.

2 Let my prayer come in before thee; incline thine ear to my supplication, O Lord.

3 For my soul is filled with troubles, and my life has drawn nigh to Hades.

4 I have been reckoned with them that go down to the pit; I became as a man without help;

5 free among the dead, as the slain ones cast out, who sleep in the tomb; whom thou rememberest no more; and they are rejected from thy hand.

6 They laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, and in the shadow of death.

7 Thy wrath has pressed heavily upon me, and thou hast brought upon me all thy billows. Pause.

8 Thou hast removed my acquaintance far from me; they have made me an abomination to themselves; I have been delivered up, and have not gone forth.

9 Mine eyes are dimmed from poverty; but I cried to thee, O Lord, all the day; I spread forth my hands to thee.

10 Wilt thou work wonders for the dead? or shall physicians raise them up, that they shall praise thee?

11 Shall any one declare thy mercy in the tomb? and thy truth in destruction?

12 Shall thy wonders be known in darkness? and thy righteousness in a forgotten land?

13 But I cried to thee, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

14 Wherefore, O Lord, dost thou reject my prayer, and turn thy face away from me?

15 I am poor and in troubles from my youth; and having been exalted, I was brought low and into despair.

16 Thy wrath has passed over me; and thy terrors have greatly disquieted me.

17 They compassed me like water; all the day they beset me together.

18 Thou hast put far from me every friend, and mine acquaintances because of my wretchedness.