A Lament in the Midst of Suffering and Tribulation
A song or psalm for the sons of Korah, written by a member of this illustrious family of musicians, to the chief musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, for use in public worship, but in a sorrowful manner, with muffled voices, Maschil, a didactic poem, of Heman, the Ezrahite, one of the four wise men at the time of Solomon, 1 Kings 4, 31, whose unusual musical gifts had caused him to be made a member of the Korahites, who were really more a guild than a family.
V. 1. O Lord God of my salvation, in whom alone there is salvation for all men, a fact which makes it necessary for every individual to cling to Him in faith, I have cried day and night, without ceasing, before Thee.
V. 2. Let my prayer come before Thee, placing no obstruction in its way, granting it a ready audience; incline Thine ear unto my cry, in the attitude of willing attention; v. 3. for my soul is full of troubles, filled up, surfeited, with evil, with suffering, and my life, in consequence of these evils, draweth nigh unto the grave, on the boundary of the realm of death.
V. 4. I am counted with them that go down into the pit, those whose death is considered imminent. I am as a man that hath no strength, his utter loss of vitality contrasting with his former strength and energy; v. 5. free among the dead, that is, set free, or released, from the bonds of the living, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom Thou rememberest no more, they are no longer active in the history of men, apparently gone and forgotten for the time being; and they are cut off from Thy hand, no longer enjoying its guidance and help.
V. 6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in the most remote parts of the realm of death, in darkness, in the deeps, for the kingdom of death was supposed to be in the depths below the ocean, in impenetrable darkness. All this is description of the almost indescribable affliction which had come upon the psalmist.
V. 7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, pressing down upon him as with the force of mighty billows, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves, bowing down His wrath upon him, like the breakers of the seashore, Selah.
V. 8. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me, his closest friends drawing back from him with suspicion, knowing no other explanation for his condition than that of the righteous punishment of God, as in the case of Job; Thou hast made me an abomination unto them, so that they loathe the very sight of him; I am shut up, and I cannot come forth, his distress being so great that no way of escape opens before his eyes.
V. 9. Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction, failing and decaying in utter exhaustion. Lord, I have called daily upon Thee, day after day, without ceasing; I have stretched out my hands unto Thee, in a gesture of urgent pleading, imploring His compassion.