The sorrows of death compassed me
Christ, of whom David was a type, was a man of sorrows all his
days; and in the garden he was surrounded with sorrow; exceeding
sorrowful even unto death, in a view of the sins of his people
imputed to him, and under a sense of wrath for them, he was about
to bear; and his agonies in the article of death were very
grievous, he died the painful and accursed death of the cross.
This was true of David, when Saul and his men compassed him on
every side, threatening to cut him off in a moment; when he
despaired of life, and had the sentence of death in himself, and
saw no way to escape; and such a case is that of the people of
God, or they may be said to be compassed about with the sorrows
of death, when through a slavish fear of it they are all their
lifetime subject to bondage; and especially when under dreadful
apprehensions of eternal death.
And the pains of hell gat hold upon me;
or "found me" F5; overtook him, and seized upon him;
meaning either the horrors of a guilty conscience under a sense
of sin, without a view of pardon; which is as it were a hell in
the conscience, and like the pains and torments of it: or "the
pains of the grave" F6; not that there are any pains felt
there, the body being destitute of life, and senseless; but such
sorrows or troubles are meant which threaten to bring down to the
grave, which was the case of Jacob on the loss of his children, (
Genesis
37:35 ) ( 42:38 ) .
This applied to Christ may design the wrath of God and curse of
the law, which he endured in the room and stead of his people, as
their surety; and which were equivalent to the pains of the
damned in hell; or it may refer to his being laid in the grave,
in a strait and narrow place, as the word F7
signifies; where he lay bound in grave clothes, till he was
loosed from the pains and cords of death, it being not possible
he should be held by them, ( Acts 2:24 ) , (See
Gill on Psalms
18:4) (See Gill on Psalms
18:5)
I found trouble and sorrow;
without seeking for them; they seized and took hold of him, on
David, and his antitype, when in the above circumstances; and
often do the saints find trouble and sorrow from a body of sin
and death, from the temptations of Satan, divine desertions, and
afflictive providences. Aben Ezra refers the one to the body, the
other to the soul.