Commentary on Psalms - Volume 3 - Bible Study Guides

Comm on Psalms (V3)John Calvinburden of afflictions as made him mournfully complain that he differed nothing from a dead man,— it greatly concerns us, I say, to look on this spectacle, that our distresses, however grievous,may not overwhelm us with despair; or if we should at times be ready to faint through weariness,care, grief, sorrow, or fear, that we may not on that account despond, especially when we see thatit is not without the highest effort that the holy prophet emerges from this profound darkness intothe cheering light of hope. We should rather rest assured that the Spirit of God, by the mouth ofHeman, has here furnished us with a form of prayer for encouraging all the afflicted who are, as itwere, on the brink of despair to come to himself.Psalm 88:1-51. O Jehovah! God of my salvation! I cry day and night before thee. 2. Let my prayer comeinto thy presence: incline thy ear to my cry; 3. For my soul is filled with troubles; and my life isdrawing near to the grave. 4. I am numbered with them that go down to the pit: I have been as aman who hath no strength: 5. Free among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom thourememberest no more, and who are cut off from thy hand.1 O Jehovah! God of my salvation! Let me call upon you particularly to notice what I have justnow stated, that although the prophet simply, and without hyperbole, recites the agony which hesuffered from the greatness of his sorrows, yet his purpose was at the same time to supply theafflicted with a form of prayer that they might not faint under any adversities, however severe,which might befall them. We will hear him by and by bursting out into vehement complaints onaccount of the grievousness of his calamities; but he seasonably fortifies himself by this briefexordium, lest, carried away with the heat of his feelings, he might become chargeable withcomplaining and murmuring against God, instead of humbly supplicating Him for pardon. Byapplying to Him the appellation of the God of his salvation, casting, as it were, a bridle upon himself,he restrains the excess of his sorrow, shuts the door against despair, and strengthens and prepareshimself for the endurance of the cross. When he speaks of his crying and importunity, he indicatesthe earnestness of soul with which he engaged in prayer. He may not, indeed, have given utteranceto loud cries; but he uses the word cry, with much propriety’, to denote the great earnestness of hisprayers. The same thing is implied when he tells us that he continued crying days and nights. Norare the words before thee superfluous. It is common for all men to complain when under the pressureof grief; but they are far from pouring out their groanings before God. Instead of this, the majorityof mankind court retirement, that they may murmur against him, and accuse him of undue severity;while others pour forth their cries into the air at random. Hence we gather that it is a rare virtue toset God before our eyes, that we may address our prayers to him.3 For my soul is filled with troubles. These words contain the excuse which the prophet pleadsfor the excess of his grief. They imply that his continued crying did not proceed from softness oreffeminacy of spirit, but that from a due consideration of his condition, it would be found that theimmense accumulation of miseries with which he was oppressed was such as might justly extortfrom him these lamentations. Nor does he speak of one kind of calamity only; but of calamities soheaped one upon another that his heart was filled with sorrow, till it could contain no more. Henext particularly affirms that his life was not far from the grave. This idea he pursues and expressesin terms more significant in the following verse, where he complains that he was, as it were, dead.Although he breathed still among the living, yet the many deaths with which he was threatened on246