881 O Lord, God of my salvation, I have been crying to you for help by day and by night: 2 Let my prayer come before you; give ear to my cry: 3 For my soul is full of evils, and my life has come near to the underworld. 4 I am numbered among those who go down into the earth; I have become like a man for whom there is no help: 5 My soul is among the dead, like those in the underworld, to whom you give no more thought; for they are cut off from your care. 6 You have put me in the lowest deep, even in dark places. 7 The weight of your wrath is crushing me, all your waves have overcome me. (Selah.) 8 You have sent my friends far away from me; you have made me a disgusting thing in their eyes: I am shut up, and not able to come out. 9 My eyes are wasting away because of my trouble: Lord, my cry has gone up to you every day, my hands are stretched out to you.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 88:1-9
Commentary on Psalm 88:1-9
(Read Psalm 88:1-9)
The first words of the psalmist are the only words of comfort and support in this psalm. Thus greatly may good men be afflicted, and such dismal thoughts may they have about their afflictions, and such dark conclusion may they make about their end, through the power of melancholy and the weakness of faith. He complained most of God's displeasure. Even the children of God's love may sometimes think themselves children of wrath and no outward trouble can be so hard upon them as that. Probably the psalmist described his own case, yet he leads to Christ. Thus are we called to look unto Jesus, wounded and bruised for our iniquities. But the wrath of God poured the greatest bitterness into his cup. This weighed him down into darkness and the deep.