Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 88:2

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 88:2. Let my prayer come before thee — It is weak and helpless, though fervent and sincere: take all hinderances out of its way, and let it have a free passage to thy throne. One of the finest thoughts in the Iliad of Homer concerns prayer; I shall transcribe a principal part of this incomparable passage-incomparable when we consider its origin: -

Και γαρ τε Λιται εισι Διος κουραι μεγαλοιο,

Χωλαι τε, ῥυσσαι τε, παραβλωπες τ' οφθαλμω·

Αἱ ῥα τε και μετοπισθ' Ατης αλεγουσι κιουσαι·

Ἡ δ' Ατη σθεναρη τε και αρτιπος· οὑνεκα πασας

Πολλον ὑπεκπροθεει, φθανει δε τε πασαν επ' αιαν,

Βλαπτους' ανθρωπους· αἱ δ' εξακεονται ποισσω·

Ὁς μεν τ' αιδεσεται κουρας Διος, ασσον ιουσας,

Τονδε μεγ' ωνησαν, και τ' εκλυον ευξαμενοιο.

Ὁς δε κ' ανῃνηται, και τε στερεως αποειπῃ,

Λισσονται δ' αρα ταιγε Δια Κρονιωνα κιουσαι,

Τῳ Ατην ἁμ' ἑπεσθαι, ἱνα βλαφθεις αποτιση.

Αλλ', Αχιλευ, πορε και συ Διος κουρησιν ἑπεσθαι

Τιμην, ῃτ' αλλων περ επιγναμπτει φρενας εσθλων.

Iliad., ix. 498-510.

Prayers are Jove's daughters; wrinkled, lame, slant-eyed,

Which, though far distant, yet with constant pace

Follow offence. Offence, robust of limb,

And treading firm the ground, outstrips them all,

And over all the earth, before them runs

Hurtful to man: they, following, heal the hurt.

Received respectfully when they approach,

They yield us aid, and listen when we pray.

But if we slight, and with obdurate heart

Resist them, to Saturnian Jove they cry.

Against, us supplicating, that offence

May cleave to us for vengeance of the wrong.

Thou, therefore, O Achilles! honour yield

To Jove's own daughters, vanquished as the brave

Have ofttimes been, by honour paid to thee.

COWPER.

On this allegory the translator makes the following remarks: "Wrinkled, because the countenance of a man, driven to prayer by a consciousness of guilt, is sorrowful and dejected. Lame, because it is a remedy to which men recur late, and with reluctance. Slant-eyed, either because in that state of humiliation they fear to lift up their eyes to heaven, or are employed in taking a retrospect of their past misconduct. The whole allegory, considering when and where it was composed, forms a very striking passage."

Prayer to God for mercy must have the qualifications marked above. Prayer comes from God. He desires to save us: this desire is impressed on our hearts by his Spirit, and reflected back to himself. Thus says the allegory, "Prayers are the daughters of Jupiter." But they are lame, as reflected light is much less intense and vivid than light direct. The desire of the heart is afraid to go into the presence of God, because the man knows, feels, that he has sinned against goodness and mercy. They are wrinkled-dried up and withered, with incessant longing: even the tears that refresh the soul are dried up and exhausted. They are slant-eyed; look aside through shame and confusion; dare not look God in the face. But transgression is strong, bold, impudent, and destructive: it treads with a firm step over the earth, bringing down curses on mankind. Prayer and repentance follow, but generally at a distance. The heart, being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin does not speedily relent. They, however, follow: and when, with humility and contrition, they approach the throne of grace, they are respectfully received. God acknowledges them as his offspring, and heals the wounds made by transgression. If the heart remain obdurate, and the man will not humble himself before his God, then his transgression cleaves to him, and the heartless, lifeless prayers which he may offer in that state, presuming on God's mercy, will turn against him; and to such a one the sacrificial death and mediation of Christ are in vain. And this will be the case especially with the person who, having received an offence from another, refuses to forgive. This latter circumstance is that to which the poet particularly refers. See the whole passage, with its context.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 88:0 Darkness and despair

Overcome with trials and seeing no way out of the situation, the writer prays desperately to God (1-2). He sees himself as being close to death, with no way of being rescued (3-5). He feels as if he has been left to die by both God and friends (6-8). He wants to experience God’s saving power now, while he is still alive, for it will be too late when he is dead (9-12).
Looking back, the writer sees that all his life he has had nothing but suffering, yet God still seems to ignore him. In fact, it seems that God deliberately attacks him, crushing him with sorrow and taking away from him even the comfort of friends. In spite of this, he does not turn away from God, but brings his burden to him daily (13-18).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE PSALMIST'S CRY TO GOD

"Oh Jehovah, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee. Let my prayer enter into thy presence; Incline thine ear unto my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, And my life draweth nigh unto Sheol. I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit; I am as a man that hath no help, Cast off among the dead, Like the slain that lie in the grave, Whom thou rememberest no more, And they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, In dark places in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, And thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. (Selah) Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me; Thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. Mine eye wasteth away by reason of affliction."

We have never read a passage describing the approach of death any more impressive than this one. "Sheol" (Psalms 88:3); "the pit" (Psalms 88:4); "among the dead" (Psalms 88:5); "the grave" (Psalms 88:5); "the lowest pit" (Psalms 88:6); "dark places" (Psalms 88:7); and "the deeps" (Psalms 88:7) are seven synonyms for the realm of the dead, or Hades; and the mind of the psalmist seems utterly overcome with the gloom of approaching death.

"O God of my salvation" Surely this is an exclamation of faith in God, and the very fact of the psalmist's turning to God in prayer is an indelible mark of trust and devotion.

"I am reckoned with them that go down into the pit" The psalmist here says that people have already written him off as a dead man. In the sixty-four years of the ministry of this writer, he has often called upon terminally ill persons who had indeed been "accounted as already dead" by members of their family and the community. This psalmist was in such a tragic condition.

"Whom thou rememberest no more… cut off from thy hand" The attitude here is that even God will remember him no more when death comes, and that God Himself will not do anything for him in the grave. The vast difference between the near-hopelessness of the Old Testament saint and the New Testament believer in Christ is dramatically emphasized by such statements as these.

"Thy wrath lieth hard upon me" Although the psalmist ascribes his condition to the wrath of God, he makes no mention of sins and does not ask forgiveness.

"Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me… made me an abomination unto them" This is one of the lines in the psalm that seems to picture the repulsiveness of lepers. When this writer visited a leper compound near Pusan, Korea, in 1953, it exhibited the most repulsive and pitiful spectacle of human misery and wretchedness that the mind can imagine. One looked in horror upon wretched human bodies with lips, eyelids, nose, ears, fingers, etc. missing because of disease, the horrible odor of the "compound," the terribly inadequate tent-shacks built by the lepers themselves from cardboard, tin, brush, scrap lumber, anything, and the "water supply" nothing but a polluted ditch nearby. The food supply was from an occasional garbage truck that dumped all kinds of waste near the camp. The soul-chilling memory of that experience still remains with this writer almost forty years afterward!

Did any of the inmates of that "compound" have loved ones who visited them? My host chaplain assured me that they were already accounted as dead by both family and the community. The verses of this psalm bring vividly to memory what was seen in that dreadful "compound."

"I am shut up, and cannot come forth" "These words have been interpreted to mean that the psalmist was a leper, and therefore cut off from society and the public worship of God (Leviticus 13:1-8; Leviticus 13:45-46)."The Layman's Bible Commentary, Vol. 9, p. 125.

"Mine eye wasteth away by reason of affliction" This also describes what happens in the disease of leprosy. The loss of eyelids exposes the eye, not only to all kinds of atmospheric debris, but also to harsh sunlight with the eventual loss or drastic reduction of eyesight.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Let my prayer come before thee - As if there were something which hindered it, or which had obstructed the way to the throne of grace; as if God repelled it from him, and turned away his ear, and would not hear.

Incline thine ear unto my cry - See the notes at Psalms 5:1.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 88:1-18 is just a sad psalm, all the way through. There just seems to be no hope; it's just miserable. When you really are feeling lower than low, and you think there is absolutely no way out, there's no answer, this is it, this is the end, then you can read Psalms 88:1-18 . And you can, you know... it'll say, well, yes, that's right. I have, man, that's... I'm there, you know.

O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee: Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry; For my soul is full of trouble: and my life draws near to the grave. I am counted with them that go down to the pit: I am as a man that has no strength: Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom you remember no more: and they are cut off from your hand. You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, and in the deeps. Your wrath lies hard upon me, and you've afflicted me with all the waves. You have put away my acquaintance far from me; you have made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. My eye mourns by reason of the affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto you. Will you show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Shall your lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or your faithfulness in destruction? Shall your wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. LORD, why do you cast off my soul? why do you hide your face from me? I am afflicted, I'm ready to die from my youth up: and while I suffer your terrors I am distracted. Your fierce wrath goes over me; your terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water; they encircled me all about together. Lover and friend have you put far from me, and my acquaintance into darkness ( Psalms 88:1-18 ).

Not even a glimmer of hope. Most of the psalms that start out like this at the last it says, "But I know, Lord, that You will deliver Your servant, you know. And those that call upon Thee," and all. And usually the last verse, even in some of these dismal psalms, there's a little light at the end of the tunnel, but not here. This thing starts in the dark and ends in the dark. It just he's down and he's not going to come out of it during this psalm. It's just one of complete... it's a total downer. So you might just inscribe that one, "the total downer."

But you come out into the next psalm and you're singing. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

These verses are an introduction to what follows. The psalmist announced that he prayed unceasingly to the God from whom he hoped to receive deliverance. He pleaded with God to entertain his request and act upon it by saving him.

"In the midst of tribulation, faith holds on to the God who has promised to deliver." [Note: Ibid., p. 565.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. The sufferer’s affliction 88:1-9a

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 88

This is one of the saddest of the psalms. One writer called it the "darkest corner of the Psalter." [Note: R. E. O. White, "Psalms," in the Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, p. 388.] It is an individual lament. It relates the prayer of a person who suffered intensely over a long time yet continued to trust in the Lord.

"Psalms 88 is an embarrassment to conventional faith. It is the cry of a believer (who sounds like Job) whose life has gone awry, who desperately seeks contact with Yahweh, but who is unable to evoke a response from God. This is indeed ’the dark night of the soul,’ when the troubled person must be and must stay in the darkness of abandonment, utterly alone." [Note: Brueggemann, p. 78.]

Heman was a wise man who was a singer in David’s service and a contemporary of Asaph and Ethan (1 Kings 4:31; 1 Chronicles 15:19; 1 Chronicles 16:41-42; 1 Chronicles 25:1; 1 Chronicles 25:6). The sons of Korah arranged and or sang this psalm.

"The emotions and suffering expressed by the psalmist are close in spirit to those of Psalms 22. In the tradition of the church, these psalms were linked together in the Scripture reading on Good Friday." [Note: VanGemeren, p. 564.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Let my prayer come before thee,.... Not before men, as hypocrites desire, but before the Lord; let it not be shut out, but be admitted; and let it come with acceptance, as it does when it ascends before God, out of the hands of the angel before the throne, perfumed with the much incense of his mediation, Revelation 8:3,

incline thine ear unto my cry; hearken to it, receive it, and give an answer to it; Christ's prayers were attended with strong crying, and were always received and heard, Hebrews 5:7.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

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, 1 Chronicles 2:4; 1 Chronicles 2:6. There were two others famed for wisdom, 1 Kings 4:31, 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 (1 Chronicles 25:5); 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 (Psalms 88:1; Psalms 88:1), and have stretched out my hands unto thee (Psalms 88:9; Psalms 88:9), 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 (Psalms 88:9; Psalms 88:9), nay, day and night,Psalms 88:1; Psalms 88:1. 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 (Psalms 88:2; Psalms 88:2): "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 (Psalms 88:3; Psalms 88:3): 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 (Psalms 88:5; Psalms 88:5): "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 30:24); "thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, as low as possible, my condition low, my spirits low, in darkness, in the deep (Psalms 88:6; Psalms 88:6), 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 (Psalms 88:7; Psalms 88:7): 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 (Psalms 88:8; Psalms 88:8): 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, Job 19:13. 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 (Psalms 88:9; Psalms 88:9): 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.