Psalms 88:3

3 For my soul is [full-]filled with evils; and my life nighed to hell. (For my soul is filled full of evils; and my life came near to Sheol, that is, the land of the dead/and my life nighed to the grave.)

Psalms 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could not; yea, that he was near to "hell" itself, for so the word ^F8 may be rendered; for when the presence of God is withdrawn, and wrath let into the conscience, a person in his own apprehension seems to be in hell as it were, or near it; see ( Jonah 2:2 ) .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.

Psalms 88:3 In-Context

1 The song of the psalm, to the sons of Korah, to victory on Mahalath, for to answer the learning of Heman, (the) Ezrahite. Lord God of mine health; I cried in day and night before thee. (The song of the psalm, for the sons of Korah, to victory on Mahalath, to answer the teaching of Heman, the Ezrahite. Lord God of my salvation; I have cried day and night before thee.)

2 My prayer enter before thy sight (Let my prayer come before thee); bow down thine ear to my prayer.

3 For my soul is [full-]filled with evils; and my life nighed to hell. (For my soul is filled full of evils; and my life came near to Sheol, that is, the land of the dead/and my life nighed to the grave.)

4 I am guessed with them that go down into the pit; I am made as a man without help,

5 and free among dead men. As men wounded sleeping in sepulchres, of which men none (thou) is mindful (of) after; and they be put away from thine hand. (and free among the dead. Like the slain who sleep in tombs, or graves, of whom there is no one thou remembereth any more; yea, they all be cut off from thy help, or thy care.)