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Matthew Henry |
P S A L M S
PSALM LXXXVIII.
This psalm is a lamentation, one of the most melancholy of all the
psalms; and it does not conclude, as usually the melancholy psalms do,
with the least intimation of comfort or joy, but, from first to last,
it is mourning and woe. It is not upon a public account that the
psalmist here complains (here is no mention of the afflictions of the
church), but only upon a personal account, especially trouble of mind,
and the grief impressed upon his spirits both by his outward
afflictions and by the remembrance of his sins and the fear of God’s
wrath. It is reckoned among the penitential psalms, and it is well when
our fears are thus turned into the right channel, and we take occasion
from our worldly grievances to sorrow after a godly sort. In this psalm
we have,
I. The great pressure of spirit that the psalmist was under,
II. The wrath of God, which was the cause of that pressure,
III. The wickedness of his friends,
IV. The application he made to God by prayer,
V. His humble expostulations and pleadings with God,
Those who are in trouble of mind may sing this psalm feelingly; those
that are not ought to sing it thankfully, blessing God that it is not
their case.
| Sorrowful Complaints; Complaining to God. | |
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A song or psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief musician
upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite.
1 O LORD God of my salvation,
I have cried day and night before thee:
2 Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my
cry;
3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh
unto the grave.
4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a
man that hath no strength:
5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave,
whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy
hand.
6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the
deeps.
7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me
with all thy waves. Selah.
8 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast
made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot
come forth.
9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have
called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
It should seem, by the titles of this and the following psalm, that
Heman was the penman of the one and Ethan of the other. There were two,
of these names, who were sons of Zerah the son of Judah,
There were two others famed for wisdom,
where, to magnify Solomon’s wisdom, he is said to be wiser than
Heman and Ethan. Whether the Heman and Ethan who were Levites and
precentors in the songs of Zion were the same we are not sure, nor
which of these, nor whether any of these, were the penmen of these
psalms. There was a Heman that was one of the chief singers, who is
called the king’s seer, or prophet, in the words of God
it is probable that this also was a seer, and yet could see no comfort
for himself, an instructor and comforter of others, and yet himself
putting comfort away from him. The very first words of the psalm are
the only words of comfort and support in all the psalm. There is
nothing about him but clouds and darkness; but, before he begins his
complaint, he calls God the God of his salvation, which
intimates both that he looked for salvation, bad as things were, and
that he looked up to God for the salvation and depended upon him to be
the author of it. Now here we have the psalmist,
I. A man of prayer, one that gave himself to prayer at all times, but
especially now that he was in affliction; for is any afflicted? let
him pray. It is his comfort that he had prayed; it is his complaint
that, notwithstanding his prayer, he was still in affliction. He was,
1. Very earnest in prayer: “I have cried unto thee
(v. 1),
and have stretched out my hands unto thee
(v. 9),
as one that would take hold on thee, and even catch at the mercy, with
a holy fear of coming short and missing of it.”
2. He was very frequent and constant in prayer: I have called upon
thee daily
(v. 9),
nay, day and night,
v. 1.
For thus men ought always to pray, and not to faint; God’s own elect
cry day and night to him, not only morning and evening, beginning every
day and every night with prayer, but spending the day and night in
prayer. This is indeed praying always; and then we shall speed in
prayer, when we continue instant in prayer.
3. He directed his prayer to God, and from him expected and desired an
answer
(v. 2):
“Let my prayer come before thee, to be accepted of thee, not
before men, to be seen of them, as the Pharisees’ prayers.” He does not
desire that men should hear them, but, “Lord, incline thy ear unto
my cry, for to that I refer myself; give what answer to it thou
pleasest.”
II. He was a man of sorrows, and therefore some make him, in this
psalm, a type of Christ, whose complaints on the cross, and sometimes
before, were much to the same purport with this psalm. He cries out
(v. 3):
My soul is full of troubles; so Christ said, Now is my soul
troubled; and, in his agony, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful
even unto death, like the psalmist’s here, for he says, My life
draws nigh unto the grave. Heman was a very wise man, and a very
good man, a man of God, and a singer too, and one may therefore suppose
him to have been a man of a cheerful spirit, and yet now a man of
sorrowful spirit, troubled in mind, and upon the brink of despair.
Inward trouble is the sorest trouble, and that which, sometimes, the
best of God’s saints and servants have been severely exercised with.
The spirit of man, of the greatest of men, will not always
sustain his infirmity, but will droop and sink under it; who then
can bear a wounded spirit?
III. He looked upon himself as a dying man, whose heart was ready to
break with sorrow
(v. 5):
“Free among the dead (one of that ghastly corporation), like
the slain that lie in the grave, whose rotting and perishing nobody
takes notice of or is concerned for, nay, whom thou rememberest no
more, to protect or provide for the dead bodies, but they become an
easy prey to corruption and the worms; they are cut off from thy
hand, which used to be employed in supporting them and reaching out
to them; but, now there is no more occasion for this, they are cut off
from it and cut off by it” (for God will not stretch out his hand to
the grave,
Job xxx. 24);
“thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, as low as possible, my
condition low, my spirits low, in darkness, in the deep
(v. 6),
sinking, and seeing no way open of escape, brought to the last
extremity, and ready to give up all for gone.” Thus greatly may good
men be afflicted, such dismal apprehensions may they have concerning
their afflictions, and such dark conclusions may they sometimes be
ready to make concerning the issue of them, through the power of
melancholy and the weakness of faith.
IV. He complained most of God’s displeasure against him, which infused
the wormwood and the gall into the affliction and the misery
(v. 7):
Thy wrath lies hard upon me. Could he have discerned the favour
and love of God in his affliction, it would have lain light upon him;
but it lay hard, very hard, upon him, so that he was ready to sink and
faint under it. The impressions of this wrath upon his spirits were
God’s waves with which he afflicted him, which rolled upon him,
one on the neck of another, so that he scarcely recovered from one dark
thought before he was oppressed with another; these waves beat against
him with noise and fury; not some, but all, of God’s waves were made
use of in afflicting him and bearing him down. Even the children of
God’s love may sometimes apprehend themselves children of wrath, and no
outward trouble can lie so hard upon them as that apprehension.
V. It added to his affliction that his friends deserted him and made
themselves strange to him. When we are in trouble it is some comfort to
have those about us that love us, and sympathize with us; but this good
man had none such, which gives him occasion, not to accuse them, or
charge them with treachery, ingratitude, and inhumanity, but to
complain to God, with an eye to his hand in this part of the affliction
(v. 8):
Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me. Providence had
removed them, or rendered them incapable of being serviceable to him,
or alienated their affections from him; for every creature is that to
us (and no more) that God makes it to be. If our old acquaintance be
shy of us, and those we expect kindness from prove unkind, we must bear
that with the same patient submission to the divine will that we do
other afflictions,
Nay, his friends were not only strange to him, but even hated him,
because he was poor and in distress: “Thou hast made me an
abomination to them; they are not only shy of me, but sick of me,
and I am looked upon by them, not only with contempt, but with
abhorrence.” Let none think it strange concerning such a trial as this,
when Heman, who was so famed for wisdom, was yet, when the world
frowned upon him, neglected, as a vessel in which is no pleasure.
VI. He looked upon his case as helpless and deplorable: “I am shut
up, and I cannot come forth, a close prisoner, under the arrests of
divine wrath, and no way open of escape.” He therefore lies down and
sinks under his troubles, because he sees not any probability of
getting out of them. For thus he bemoans himself
(v. 9):
My eye mourneth by reason of affliction. Sometimes giving vent
to grief by weeping gives some ease to a troubled spirit. Yet weeping
must not hinder praying; we must sow in tears: My eye mourns,
but I cry unto thee daily. Let prayers and tears go together,
and they shall be accepted together. I have heard thy prayers, I
have seen thy tears.
| Pleading with God. | |
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10 Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise
and praise thee? Selah.
11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy
faithfulness in destruction?
12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy
righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall
my prayer prevent thee.
14 LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy
face from me?
15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up:
while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me
about together.
18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine
acquaintance into darkness.
In these verses,
I. The psalmist expostulates with God concerning the present deplorable
condition he was in
(v. 10-12):
“Wilt thou do a miraculous work to the dead, and raise them to
life again? Shall those that are dead and buried rise up to praise
thee? No; they leave it to their children to rise up in their room
to praise God; none expects that they should do it; and wherefore
should they rise, wherefore should they live, but to praise God? The
life we are born to at first, and the life we hope to rise to at last,
must thus be spent. But shall thy lovingkindness to thy people be
declared in the grave, either by those or to those that lie buried
there? And thy faithfulness to thy promise, shall that be told in
destruction? shall thy wonders be wrought in the dark, or known
there, and thy righteousness in the grave, which is the land
of forgetfulness, where men remember nothing, nor are themselves
remembered? Departed souls may indeed know God’s wonders and declare
his faithfulness, justice, and lovingkindness; but deceased bodies
cannot; they can neither receive God’s favours in comfort nor return
them in praise.” Now we will not suppose these expostulations to be the
language of despair, as if he thought God could not help him or would
not, much less do they imply any disbelief of the resurrection of the
dead at the last day; but he thus pleads with God for speedy relief:
“Lord, thou art good, thou art faithful, thou art righteous; these
attributes of thine will be made known in my deliverance, but, if it be
not hastened, it will come too late; for I shall be dead and past
relief, dead and not capable of receiving any comfort, very shortly.”
Job often pleaded thus,
II. He resolves to continue instant in prayer, and the more so because
the deliverance was deferred
(v. 13):
“Unto thee have I cried many a time, and found comfort in so
doing, and therefore I will continue to do so; in the morning shall
my prayer prevent thee.” Note, Though our prayers be not answered
immediately, yet we must not therefore give over praying, because
the vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak
and not lie. God delays the answer in order that he may try our
patience and perseverance in prayer. He resolves to seek God early, in
the morning, when his spirits were lively, and before the business of
the day began to crowd in–in the morning, after he had been tossed
with cares, and sorrowful thoughts in the silence and solitude of the
night; but how could he say, My prayer shall prevent thee? Not
as if he could wake sooner to pray than God to hear and answer; for he
neither slumbers nor sleeps; but it intimates that he would be up
earlier than ordinary to pray, would prevent (that is, go
before) his usual hour of prayer. The greater our afflictions are the
more solicitous and serious we should be in prayer. “My prayer shall
present itself before thee, and be betimes with thee, and shall not
stay for the encouragement of the beginning of mercy, but reach towards
it with faith and expectation even before the day dawns.” God often
prevents our prayers and expectations with his mercies; let us prevent
his mercies with our prayers and expectations.
III. He sets down what he will say to God in prayer.
1. He will humbly reason with God concerning the abject afflicted
condition he was now in
(v. 14):
“Lord, why castest thou off my soul? What is it that provokes
thee to treat me as one abandoned? Show me wherefore thou contendest
with me.” He speaks it with wonder that God should cast off an old
servant, should cast off one that was resolved not to cast him off: “No
wonder men cast me off; but, Lord, why dost thou, whose gifts and
callings are without repentance? Why hidest thou thy face, as
one angry at me, that either hast no favour for me or wilt not let me
know that thou hast?” Nothing grieves a child of God so much as God’s
hiding his face from him, nor is there any thing he so much dreads as
God’s casting off his soul. If the sun be clouded, that darkens the
earth; but if the sun should abandon the earth, and quite cast it off,
what a dungeon would it be!
2. He will humbly repeat the same complaints he had before made, until
God have mercy on him. Two things he represents to God as his
grievances:–
(1.) That God was a terror to him: I suffer thy terrors,
v. 15.
He had continual frightful apprehensions of the wrath of God against
him for his sins and the consequences of that wrath. It terrified him
to think of God, of falling into his hands and appearing before him to
receive his doom from him. He perspired and trembled at the
apprehension of God’s displeasure against him, and the terror of his
majesty. Note, Even those that are designed for God’s favours may yet,
for a time, suffer his terrors. The spirit of adoption is first a
spirit of bondage to fear. Poor Job complained of the terrors of God
setting themselves in array against him,
Job vi. 4.
The psalmist here explains himself, and tells us what he means by God’s
terrors, even his fierce wrath. Let us see what dreadful
impressions those terrors made upon him, and how deeply they wounded
him.
[1.] They had almost taken away his life: “I am so afflicted
with them that I am ready to die, and” (as the word is) “to
give up the ghost. Thy terrors have cut me off,”
What is hell, that eternal excision, by which damned sinners are for
ever cut off from God and all happiness, but God’s terrors fastening
and preying upon their guilty consciences?
[2.] They had almost taken away the use of his reason: When I suffer
thy terrors I am distracted. This sad effect the terrors of the
Lord have had upon many, and upon some good men, who have thereby been
put quite out of the possession of their own souls, a most piteous
case, and which ought to be looked upon with great compassion.
[3.] This had continued long: From my youth up I suffer thy
terrors. He had been from his childhood afflicted with melancholy,
and trained up in sorrow under the discipline of that school. If we
begin our days with trouble, and the days of our mourning have been
prolonged a great while, let us not think it strange, but let
tribulation work patience. It is observable the Heman, who became
eminently wise and good, was afflicted and ready to die, and
suffered God’s terrors, from his youth up. Thus many have found
it was good for them to bear the yoke in their youth, that sorrow has
been much better for them than laughter would have been, and that being
much afflicted, and often ready to die, when they were young, they
have, by the grace of God, got such an habitual seriousness and
weanedness from the world as have been of great use to them all their
days. Sometimes those whom God designs for eminent services are
prepared for them by exercises of this kind.
[4.] His affliction was now extreme, and worse than ever. God’s terrors
now came round about him, so that from all sides he was assaulted with
variety of troubles, and he had no comfortable gale from any point of
the compass. They broke in upon him together like an inundation of
water; and this daily, and all the day; so that he had no rest, no
respite, not the lest breathing-time, no lucid intervals, nor any gleam
of hope. Such was the calamitous state of a very wise and good man; he
was so surrounded with terrors that he could find no place of shelter,
nor lie any where under the wind.
(2.) That no friend he had in the world was a comfort to him
(v. 18):
Lover and friend hast thou put far from me; some are dead,
others at a distance, and perhaps many unkind. Next to the comforts of
religion are those of friendship and society; therefore to be
friendless is (as to this life) almost to be comfortless; and to those
who have had friends, but have lost them, the calamity is the more
grievous. With this the psalmist here closes his complaint, as if this
were that which completed his woe and gave the finishing stroke to the
melancholy piece. If our friends are put far from us by scattering
providences, nay, if by death our acquaintance are removed into
darkness, we have reason to look upon it as a sore affliction, but must
acknowledge and submit to the hand of God in it.
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