A Lament in the Midst of Suffering and Tribulation
Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? That is, Did God intend to wait till He had succumbed to death! Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? That is, God surely did not expect praise from ghosts. Selah.
The thought is this, that the psalmist, while he was still alive, wanted to praise the Lord for his deliverance from all the misery afflicting him; therefore the Lord should not let his afflictions reach such a climax as to bring him to the realm of death; for then all opportunity for worshiping Him would be past.
V. 11. Shall Thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave or Thy faithfulness in destruction, in the place of ruin?
V. 12. Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? in the darkness of the realm of death, and Thy righteousness, as He revealed and imparted it to the believers, in the land of forgetfulness? where the body, even of the believers, for the time being, loses the faculty of thinking, feeling, and acting. The question of a final resurrection is not broached here, the psalmist having before his eyes only the deliverance from the present troubles.
V. 13. But unto Thee have I cried, O Lord, deliberately shaking off the thoughts of despair which threatened to overwhelm his trust in Yahweh; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent Thee, going forth to meet, to intercept, the Lord, before He could think of doing anything else.
V. 14. Lord, why castest Thou off my soul? by apparently despising it with loathing. Why hidest Thou thy face from me? as though unwilling to help. Cp. Ps. 27, 9; 77, 7.
V. 15. I am afflicted and ready to die, on the point of death on account of the many troubles laid upon him, from my youth up; while I suffer Thy terrors, I am distracted, in such extremes of anguish and despair that he could not regain his powers.
V. 16. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me, the billows of God’s wrath submerging him; Thy terrors have cut me off, thereby crushing him.
V. 17. They, the terrors of God, which inspired such fears in his heart, came round about me daily like water, like an ocean flood; they compassed me about together, so that he saw no way of escape.
V. 18. Lover and friend, all those who formerly were nearest and dearest to him. hast Thou put far from me and mine acquaintance, those whose confidence he had enjoyed, into darkness, so that they were no longer visible to him. “With this cry the harp drops from the poet’s hand; he is silent and waits until God shall solve the enigma of his suffering.” (Delitzsch.)
As one commentator has it, this psalm may well be taken as typical of the immeasurable sufferings of Christ, the Messiah, when He became our Substitute in taking upon Himself the misery of humanity.