You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.
This psalm pours forth grievous lamentations from one nearly at despair, yet even in deep darkness he calls upon God to deliver him, displaying an invincible steadfastness of faith. The occasion remains debated: some hold it the prayer of a leper isolated by the law, others the voice of captive Israel in chains, yet all agree it speaks the language of one whom God has struck down.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 88:1-18
Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. What a collection of forcible metaphors, each one expressive of the utmost grief. Heman compared his forlorn condition to an imprisonment in a subterranean dungeon, to confinement in the realms of the dead, and to a plunge into the abyss. None of the similes are strained.
Before he utters a single complaint, he calls God the God of his salvation, the only words of comfort in all this psalm of clouds and darkness. This tells us he looked for salvation despite everything, and that he looked to God alone as its author. A man of prayer even in affliction, he had cried out earnestly, stretching his hands toward the Lord as one straining to catch hold of mercy itself.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 88:1-9