Mga Komentaryo sa Bibliya

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, Ps 88:3-6. II. The wrath of God, which was the cause of that pressure, Ps 88:7,15-17. III. The wickedness of his friends, Ps 88:8,18. IV. The application he made to God by prayer, Ps 88:1,2,9,13. V. His humble expostulations and pleadings with God, Ps 88:10,12,14. 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.

This psalm is altogether of a mournful and desponding character. The author is a sufferer; he is expecting to die; he fears to die; he longs to live; his mind is overwhelmed with gloom which does not seem to be irradiated by one ray of hope or consolation. It is, in this respect, unlike most of the psalms which relate to sickness, to sorrow, to suffering, for in those psalms generally there springs up, in answer to prayer, a gleam of hope - some cheerful view - some sustaining prospect; so that, though a psalm begins in despondency and gloom, it ends with joy and triumph. Compare, among others, Psalm 6:9-10; Psalm 7:17; Psalm 13:6; Psalm 42:8, Psalm 42:11; Psalm 56:11-13; Psalm 59:16; Psalm 69:34, Psalm 69:36. But in this psalm there is no relief; there is no comfort. As the Book of Psalms was designed to be useful in all ages, and to all classes of people, and as such a state of mind as that described in this psalm might occur again and often - it was proper that such a condition of utter despondency, even in a good man, should be described, in order that others might see that such feelings are not necessarily inconsistent with true religion, and do not prove that even such a sufferer is not a child of God. It is probable that this psalm was designed to illustrate what may occur when disease is such as to produce deep mental darkness and sorrow. And the Book of Psalms would have been incomplete for the use of the church, if there had not been at least one such psalm in the collection.

The psalm is said, in the title, to be "A Psalm or Song for (margin, of) the sons of Korah" - combining, in some way unknown to us, as several of the other psalms do, the properties of both a psalm and a song. The phrase, "for the sons of Korah," means here, probably, that it was composed for their use, and not by them, unless "Heman the Ezrahite" was one of their number. On the phrase, "To the chief Musician," see the notes at the title to Psalm 4:1-8. The words, "upon Mahalath Leannoth," are of very uncertain signification. They are rendered by the Septuagint and the Vulgate "for Maeleth, to answer;" by Luther, "to sing, of the weakness of the miserable;" by Prof. Alexander, "concerning afflictive sickness." The word "Mahalath" seems here to be a form of מחלה machăleh, which means properly, "sickness, disease." It is rendered, with a slight variation in the pointing, "disease" in 2 Chronicles 21:15; Exodus 15:26; "infirmity," in Proverbs 18:14; and "sickness" in Exodus 23:25; 1 Kings 8:37; 2 Chronicles 6:28. It does not occur elsewhere, and would be properly rendered here, therefore, "disease, sickness, or infirmity." The Hebrew which is rendered "Leannoth," לענית le‛anoyth, is made up of a preposition (ל l) and a verb. The verb - ענה ‛ânâh - means:

(1) to chant or sing;

(2) to lift up the voice in any way - to begin to speak;

(3) to answer;

(4) to mean to say, to imply.

The verb also has another class of significations;

(a) to bestow labor upon,

(b) to suffer, to be afflicted, and might here refer to such affliction or trouble.

According to the former signification, which is probably the true one here, the allusion would be to something which was said or sung in respect to the sickness referred to; as, for example, a mournful melody composed for the occasion; and the purpose would be to express the feelings experienced in sickness. According to the other signification it would refer to affliction, and would be little more than a repetition of the idea implied in the word Mahalath. It seems to me, therefore, that there is a reference in the word "Leannoth" to something which was said or sung on that occasion; or to something which might be properly said or sung in reference to sickness. It is difficult to translate the phrase, but it might be somewhat literally rendered, "concerning sickness - to be said or sung;" that is, in reference to it. The word Maschil (see the notes at the title to Psalm 32:1-11) conveys the idea that it is a didactic or instructive psalm - suggesting appropriate thoughts for such a season. The psalm is ascribed to "Heman the Ezrahite." The name Heman occurs in 1 Kings 4:31; 1 Chronicles 2:6; 1 Chronicles 6:33; 1 Chronicles 15:17, 1 Chronicles 15:19; 1 Chronicles 16:42; 1 Chronicles 25:1, 1 Chronicles 25:4-6; 2 Chronicles 5:12; 2 Chronicles 29:14; 2 Chronicles 35:15 - usually in connection with Ethan, as among those whom David placed over the music in the services of the sanctuary.

Nothing is known of the occasion on which the psalm was composed, except, as is probably indicated in the title, that it was in a time of sickness; and from the psalm itself we find that it was when the mind was enveloped in impenetrable darkness, with no comfort.

The psalm consists of two parts:

I. A description of the sick man's suffering, Psalm 88:1-9. His soul was full of troubles, and he drew near to the grave, Psalm 88:3; he was, as it were, already dead, and like those laid in the deep grave, whom God had forgotten, Psalm 88:4-6; the wrath of God lay heavily on him, and all his waves went over him, Psalm 88:7; God had put away all his friends from him, and had left him to suffer alone, Psalm 88:8; his eye mourned by reason of his affliction, and he cried daily to God, Psalm 88:9.

II. His prayer for mercy and deliverance, Psalm 88:10-18. The reasons for the earnestness of the prayer, or the grounds of petition are,

(a) that the dead could not praise God, or see the wonders of his hand, Psalm 88:10-12;

(b) that the faithfulness and loving-kindness of God could not be shown in the grave, Psalm 88:11;

(c) that his troubles were deep and overwhelming, for God had cast off his soul, and had hid his face from him; he had been long afflicted; he was distracted with the terrors of God; the fierce wrath of God went over him; lover and friend and acquaintance had been put far from him, Psalm 88:13-18.

The earnest prayer of a person in deep distress, abandoned by his friends and neighbors, and apparently forsaken of God, vv. 1-18.

Perhaps the title of this Psalm, which is difficult enough, might be thus translated: "A Poem to be sung to the conqueror, by the sons of Korah, responsively, in behalf of a distressed person; to give instruction to Heman the Ezrahite." Kennicott says this Psalm has three titles, but the last only belongs to it; and supposes it to be the prayer of a person shut up in a separate house, because of the leprosy, who seems to have been in the last stages of that distemper; this disease, under the Mosaic dispensation, being supposed to come from the immediate stroke of God. Calmet supposes it to refer to the captivity; the Israelitish nation being represented here under the figure of a person greatly afflicted through the whole course of his life. By some Heman is supposed to have been the author; but who he was is not easy to be determined. Heman and Ethan whose names are separately prefixed to this and the following Psalm, are mentioned as the grandsons of Judah by his daughter-in-law Tamar, 1 Chronicles 2:6, for they were the sons of Zerah, his immediate son by the above. "And Tamar, his daughter-in-law, bare him Pharez and Zerah," 1 Chronicles 2:4. "And the sons of Zerah Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara, (or Darda)," 1 Chronicles 2:6. If these were the same persons mentioned 1 Kings 4:31, they were eminent in wisdom; for it is there said that Solomon's wisdom "excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol," 1 Kings 4:30, 1 Kings 4:31. Probably Zerah was also called Mahol. If the Psalms in question were written by these men, they are the oldest poetical compositions extant; and the most ancient part of Divine revelation, as these persons lived at least one hundred and seventy years before Moses. This may be true of the seventy-eighth Psalm; but certainly not of the following, as it speaks of transactions that took place long afterwards, at least as late as the days of David, who is particularly mentioned in it. Were we sure of Heman as the author, there would be no difficulty in applying the whole of the Psalm to the state of the Hebrews in Egypt, persecuted and oppressed by Pharaoh. But to seek or labor to reconcile matters contained in the titles to the Psalms, is treating them with too much respect, as many of them are wrongly placed, and none of them Divinely inspired.

INTRODUCTION TO Psalm 88

A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. Of the word "maalath", See Gill on Psalm 53:1. "Leannoth" signifies "to answer". Perhaps this song was to be sung alternately, or by responses. Both words are thought by some, as Aben Ezra, to be the beginning of a song, to the tune of which this was set; and by others a musical instrument, on which it was sung; a hollow one, as the word "maalath" seems to signify, a wind instrument: others are of opinion that they intend the subject matter of the psalm, and render them, "concerning the disease to afflict", or "the afflicting disease" (a); either a bodily one, which threatened with death, under which the psalmist now was; or a soul disorder, being under desertions, and a sense of divine wrath, which were very afflicting. The psalm is called "Maschil", which may be translated "causing to understand"; it being instructive to persons in a like case to apply to God, as he did; and if it respects Christ, it teaches many things concerning him, his sorrows and his sufferings: the author of it is said to be Heman the Ezrahite; the Targum calls him Heman the native, and the Septuagint render it Heman the Israelite, and Arama says this is Abraham. There were two of this name, one the son of Zerah, the son of Judah, and so might be called the Zerahite, and with the addition of a letter the Ezrahite; he is mentioned along with others as famous for wisdom, 1 Chronicles 2:6, but this man seems to be too early to be the penman of this psalm: though Dr. Lightfoot (b) is of opinion that this psalm was penned by this Heman many years before the birth of Moses; which and the following psalm are the oldest pieces of writing the world has to show, being written by two men who felt and groaned under the bondage and affliction of Egypt, which Heman here deplores, and therefore entitles his elegy "Maalath Leannoth, concerning sickness by affliction"; and accordingly he and his brethren are called the sons of Mahali, 1 Kings 4:31. There was another Heman, who was both a singer in David's time, and the king's seer, who seems most likely to be the person, 1 Chronicles 6:33, he was when he wrote this psalm under sore temptations, desertions, and dejections, though not in downright despair; there is but one comfortable clause in it, and that is the first of it; many interpreters, both ancient and modern, think he is to be considered throughout as a type of Christ, with whom everything in it more exactly agrees than with anyone man else. The Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret it of the people of Israel in captivity; and so the Syriac version entitles it,

"concerning the people that were in Babylon;''

but a single person only is designed throughout. Spinosa (d) affirms, from the testimony of Philo the Jew, that this psalm was published when King Jehoiachin was a prisoner in Babylon, and the following psalm when he was released: but this is not to be found in the true Philo, but in Pseudo-Philo (d).

LXXXVIII.

“If you listen,” says Lord Bacon, “to David’s harp, you will hear as many hearse-like airs as carols.” But even among these this psalm stands alone and peculiar for the sadness of its tragic tone. From beginning to end—with the one exception of the word “salvation” in the first line—there is nothing to relieve its monotony of grief. If this wail of sorrow is the expression of individual suffering there is no particular interest in ascertaining its date, unless we could also fix on its author. Uzziah when in “the separate house” of leprosy” (see Note on Psalm 88:5), Hezekiah in his sickroom, Jeremiah in his pit, Job on his dunghill, have each in turn been suggested. But the very fact that the tone of the psalm suits any one of these as well, and no better, than another, warns us of the uselessness of such suggestions.

Indeed it is extremely doubtful whether the psalm is a picture of individual sorrow at all, and not rather a figurative description of national trouble. There is a want of distinctness in the cause of the mourning. The battle-field, sickness, flood, imprisonment, each in turn is employed to represent it; and while at one time speaking of himself as at the point of death (Psalm 88:3), the poet goes on now to picture himself as actually in the grave, in sheôl itself. The expression in Psalm 88:15, “from my youth up,” is not in any way against the reference of the psalm to the community. (See Psalm 129:1, where it is expressly said “Israel may use the expression.) The poetical form is almost regular.

Title.—See titles, Psalms 42, 48

Upon Mahalath Leannoth.—See title, Psalms 53, where “Mahalath” occurs alone. Render, Upon the sickness of distress, i.e., upon a sickening distress, and understand it, as in other cases, as the name of a tune or first words of a hymn associated with music suitable to this melancholy effusion.

For “Maschil” see title, Psalms 32.

Heman the Ezrahite—i.e., of the family of Zerah, the letters having been transposed; not the Heman of 1Chronicles 6:33, but of 1Kings 4:31; 1Chronicles 2:6.

This long inscription is really made up of two: “A song or psalm for the sons of Korah,” and “To the chief musician,” &c

This is the saddest Psalm in the whole Psalter. It is a pathetic cry of hopeless despair in the midst of unrelieved suffering. In other Psalms the light breaks through the clouds at last: here the gloom is deepest at the close. It is characteristic that the last word is darkness.

Is the Psalmist describing his own personal experience, or does he speak in the name of the nation? There is much to be said for the view that the speaker is Israel in exile, “lamenting its exclusion from the light of its Lord’s Presence.” Possibly, as may be the case in Lamentations 3, the community identifies itself with the typical sufferer Job, and borrows his language to describe its sufferings. So the Psalm is interpreted in the Targum, which paraphrases Psalm 88:6, “Thou hast placed me in exile which is like the nether pit”; and in the Syriac Version, which prefixes the title, “Concerning the people which was in Babylon.”

But while the Psalm was doubtless so applied in liturgical use, there is nothing in it which demands the national interpretation, and much which it is most natural to regard as primarily personal; and it seems best to regard it as springing out of the personal experience of some heavily afflicted saint. He had been, it would seem, a victim of the painful and loathsome disease of leprosy from his childhood. Life had been for him a living death. He stood on the brink of the grave: nay, though still alive on earth, he seemed to have been plunged into the darkness of Sheol. Banished from society, he could have no part in the joys of life; excluded from the Temple, he could have no share in the worship which was the outward and visible sign of God’s covenant with His people. The wrath of God seemed to be resting upon him. Nor could he look forward to a life through death in which his soul “delivered from the burden of the flesh” would be “in joy and felicity.” Death, as it then seemed, must sever the covenant relation between God and His people. Sheol was the land of oblivion, where neither He remembered them, nor they remembered Him. Still less could he console himself with the hope of a joyful resurrection.

Such a Psalm brings home to us, as no other does, a sense of the shadow which rested upon the life of ancient Israel, and of the preciousness of the revelation of eternal life in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:14-15). It is moreover a noble example of a faith which trusts God utterly in spite of all discouragement, and cleaves to God most passionately when God seems to have withdrawn Himself most completely.

The Psalm presents many parallels with similar Psalms, with the Book of Lamentations, and with the Book of Job, with which the author must have been familiar, and from which he borrows language for the portraiture of his own sufferings. Who he was, it is idle to speculate. Uzziah in his leprosy, Hezekiah in his sickness, Jeremiah in his dungeon, have been suggested. Ingenious, but improbable, is the conjecture of Delitzsch, that Heman the Ezrahite, in conjunction with other sages of Solomon’s time, was the author of the Book of Job, and that in this Psalm he records his personal experiences, which are there expanded in a dramatic form.

The Psalm may be analysed as follows:

i. After an introductory invocation the Psalmist pleads the intensity of his sufferings, if so be he may move God to pity. He is at the point of death; nay already counted as a dead man; deserted by his friends; plunged as it were into the very depths of Sheol by the visitation of God’s wrath (Psalm 88:1-8).

ii. He has no hope in life. Yet he has continued instant in prayer. Can God display His power and love in the unseen world? Nay, that is incredible (Psalm 88:9-12).

iii. Still he casts himself upon God. Why does God reject him, and drive him to distraction by the terrors of His wrath, hemming him in and isolating him so that no ray of sympathy relieves the misery of his life (Psalm 88:13-18)?

The Psalm is appointed as a Proper Psalm for Good Friday, doubtless because the Ancient Fathers interpreted it, like Psalms 22, as the utterance of the suffering Christ.

The title is composite. The first half, A song, a Psalm of the sons of Korah, unless it is a mere accidental repetition of the title of Psalms 87, indicates that it was taken from the Korahite collection. The second half, For the Chief Musician; set to Mahalath Leannoth. Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite, gives the musical setting and traditional authorship. Leannoth may mean ‘for singing antiphonally’; but more probably Mahalath Leannoth, i.e. ‘sickness to afflict’ is the title of the melody to which the Psalm was to be sung, which may or may not have been identical with that called Mahalath in the title of Psalms 53. On Maschil see Introd. p. xix.

The designation of Heman and Ethan as Ezrahites in the titles of this and the following Psalm is perplexing.

(i) In 1 Kings 4:31, Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol, and Darda are named as famous sages, whose wisdom was surpassed by that of Solomon. In 1 Chronicles 2:6, we have the same four names (for Dara is an obvious error of transcription for Darda) given as sons or descendants of Zerah. It is natural to infer that the patronymic Ezrahite means, as it may legitimately do, ‘of the family of Zerah.’ Heman and Ethan consequently belonged to the tribe of Judah. It is not stated whether the four sages of 1 Kings 4:31 were contemporary with Solomon or not. The comparison would be more forcible if they were the most famous sages of all past time known to the historian. But on the other hand it need not be supposed that they were literally sons of Zerah, for ‘sons’ in genealogical language frequently means ‘descendants,’ and in 1 Kings they (or at least the last three of them) are called ‘the sons of Mahol.’

(ii) In 1 Chronicles 15:17; 1 Chronicles 15:19 Heman and Ethan appear along with Asaph as leaders of the Temple music. Heman, who was a Korahite, represented the family of Kohath; Asaph that of Gershom; Ethan that of Merari. In 1 Chronicles 25:5 Heman is called “the king’s seer,” and from a comparison of 1 Chronicles 16:41-42; 1 Chronicles 25:1 ff. with 1 Chronicles 15:17; 1 Chronicles 15:19 it has been inferred that Ethan was also called Jeduthun.

It is certainly natural to suppose that the famous musicians are meant here, and that these Psalms were traditionally ascribed to them, or were in some way connected with the guilds or choirs which bore their names, as the Psalms of Asaph were connected with the guild or choir of Asaph. Accordingly various attempts have been made to explain how Levites could also be called Ezrahites. It has been conjectured that they were Judahites who had been adopted into the Levitical guild, or Levites, who as dwelling in the territory assigned to the family of Zerah were reckoned to belong to that family (cp. Jdg 17:7). But these conjectures are precarious, and it seems most probable that Heman and Ethan the musicians have been wrongly identified with their namesakes the famous sages.

Ps 88:1-18.

Upon Mahalath--either an instrument, as a lute, to be used as an accompaniment (Leannoth, "for singing") or, as others think, an enigmatic title (see on

Ps 5:1,

Ps 22:1,

and

Ps 45:1,

titles), denoting the subject--that is, "sickness or disease, for humbling," the idea of spiritual maladies being often represented by disease (compare

Ps 6:5, 6; 22:14, 15,

&c.). On the other terms, see on

Ps 42:1

and

Ps 32:1.

Heman and Ethan (see on

Ps 89:1,

title) were David's singers

(1Ch 6:18, 33; 15:17),

of the family of Kohath. If the persons alluded to

(1Ki 4:31; 1Ch 2:6),

they were probably adopted into the tribe of Judah. Though called a song, which usually implies joy

(Ps 83:1),

both the style and matter of the Psalm are very despondent; yet the appeals to God evince faith, and we may suppose that the word "song" might be extended to such compositions.

1, 2. Compare on the terms used,

Ps 22:2; 31:2.

O Lord God of my salvation - On whom I depend for salvation; who alone canst save me. Luther renders this, "O God, my Saviour."

I have cried day and night before thee - literally, "By day I cried; by night before thee;" that is, my prayer is constantly before thee. The meaning is, that there was no intermission to his prayers; he prayed all the while. This does not refer to the general habit of his life, but to the time of his sickness. He had prayed most earnestly and constantly that he might be delivered from sickness and from the dangers of death. He had, as yet, obtained no answer, and he now pours out, and records, a more earnest petition to God.