TRV
Translation
Complete Jewish Bible
They surge around me all day like a flood, from all sides they close in on me.
American Standard Version
They came round about me like water all the day long; They compassed me about together.
World English Bible Messianic
They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me.
Young's Literal Translation
They have surrounded me as waters all the day, They have gone round against me together,
In the KJVVerse 15,326 of 31,102
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Commentary on Psalms 88 verses 10–18
10 ¶ Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.
11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
14 LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.
18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.
In these verses,
I. The psalmist expostulates with God concerning the present deplorable condition he was in (Psa 88:10-12): "Wilt thou do a miraculous work to the dead, and raise them to life again? Shall those that are dead and buried rise up to praise thee? No; they leave it to their children to rise up in their room to praise God; none expects that they should do it; and wherefore should they rise, wherefore should they live, but to praise God? The life we are born to at first, and the life we hope to rise to at last, must thus be spent. But shall thy lovingkindness to thy people be declared in the grave, either by those or to those that lie buried there? And thy faithfulness to thy promise, shall that be told in destruction? shall thy wonders be wrought in the dark, or known there, and thy righteousness in the grave, which is the land of forgetfulness, where men remember nothing, nor are themselves remembered? Departed souls may indeed know God's wonders and declare his faithfulness, justice, and lovingkindness; but deceased bodies cannot; they can neither receive God's favours in comfort nor return them in praise." Now we will not suppose these expostulations to be the language of despair, as if he thought God could not help him or would not, much less do they imply any disbelief of the resurrection of the dead at the last day; but he thus pleads with God for speedy relief: "Lord, thou art good, thou art faithful, thou art righteous; these attributes of thine will be made known in my deliverance, but, if it be not hastened, it will come too late; for I shall be dead and past relief, dead and not capable of receiving any comfort, very shortly." Job often pleaded thus, Job 7:8; Job 10:21.
II. He resolves to continue instant in prayer, and the more so because the deliverance was deferred (Psa 88:13): "Unto thee have I cried many a time, and found comfort in so doing, and therefore I will continue to do so; in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee." Note, Though our prayers be not answered immediately, yet we must not therefore give over praying, because the vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak and not lie. God delays the answer in order that he may try our patience and perseverance in prayer. He resolves to seek God early, in the morning, when his spirits were lively, and before the business of the day began to crowd in - in the morning, after he had been tossed with cares, and sorrowful thoughts in the silence and solitude of the night; but how could he say, My prayer shall prevent thee? Not as if he could wake sooner to pray than God to hear and answer; for he neither slumbers nor sleeps; but it intimates that he would be up earlier than ordinary to pray, would prevent (that is, go before) his usual hour of prayer. The greater our afflictions are the more solicitous and serious we should be in prayer. "My prayer shall present itself before thee, and be betimes with thee, and shall not stay for the encouragement of the beginning of mercy, but reach towards it with faith and expectation even before the day dawns." God often prevents our prayers and expectations with his mercies; let us prevent his mercies with our prayers and expectations.
III. He sets down what he will say to God in prayer. 1. He will humbly reason with God concerning the abject afflicted condition he was now in (Psa 88:14): "Lord, why castest thou off my soul? What is it that provokes thee to treat me as one abandoned? Show me wherefore thou contendest with me." He speaks it with wonder that God should cast off an old servant, should cast off one that was resolved not to cast him off: "No wonder men cast me off; but, Lord, why dost thou, whose gifts and callings are without repentance? Why hidest thou thy face, as one angry at me, that either hast no favour for me or wilt not let me know that thou hast?" Nothing grieves a child of God so much as God's hiding his face from him, nor is there any thing he so much dreads as God's casting off his soul. If the sun be clouded, that darkens the earth; but if the sun should abandon the earth, and quite cast it off, what a dungeon would it be! 2. He will humbly repeat the same complaints he had before made, until God have mercy on him. Two things he represents to God as his grievances: - (1.) That God was a terror to him: I suffer thy terrors, Psa 88:15. He had continual frightful apprehensions of the wrath of God against him for his sins and the consequences of that wrath. It terrified him to think of God, of falling into his hands and appearing before him to receive his doom from him. He perspired and trembled at the apprehension of God's displeasure against him, and the terror of his majesty. Note, Even those that are designed for God's favours may yet, for a time, suffer his terrors. The spirit of adoption is first a spirit of bondage to fear. Poor Job complained of the terrors of God setting themselves in array against him, Job 6:4. The psalmist here explains himself, and tells us what he means by God's terrors, even his fierce wrath. Let us see what dreadful impressions those terrors made upon him, and how deeply they wounded him. [1.] They had almost taken away his life: "I am so afflicted with them that I am ready to die, and" (as the word is) "to give up the ghost. Thy terrors have cut me off," Psa 88:16. What is hell, that eternal excision, by which damned sinners are for ever cut off from God and all happiness, but God's terrors fastening and preying upon their guilty consciences? [2.] They had almost taken away the use of his reason: When I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. This sad effect the terrors of the Lord have had upon many, and upon some good men, who have thereby been put quite out of the possession of their own souls, a most piteous case, and which ought to be looked upon with great compassion. [3.] This had continued long: From my youth up I suffer thy terrors. He had been from his childhood afflicted with melancholy, and trained up in sorrow under the discipline of that school. If we begin our days with trouble, and the days of our mourning have been prolonged a great while, let us not think it strange, but let tribulation work patience. It is observable the Heman, who became eminently wise and good, was afflicted and ready to die, and suffered God's terrors, from his youth up. Thus many have found it was good for them to bear the yoke in their youth, that sorrow has been much better for them than laughter would have been, and that being much afflicted, and often ready to die, when they were young, they have, by the grace of God, got such an habitual seriousness and weanedness from the world as have been of great use to them all their days. Sometimes those whom God designs for eminent services are prepared for them by exercises of this kind. [4.] His affliction was now extreme, and worse than ever. God's terrors now came round about him, so that from all sides he was assaulted with variety of troubles, and he had no comfortable gale from any point of the compass. They broke in upon him together like an inundation of water; and this daily, and all the day; so that he had no rest, no respite, not the lest breathing-time, no lucid intervals, nor any gleam of hope. Such was the calamitous state of a very wise and good man; he was so surrounded with terrors that he could find no place of shelter, nor lie any where under the wind. (2.) That no friend he had in the world was a comfort to him (Psa 88:18): Lover and friend hast thou put far from me; some are dead, others at a distance, and perhaps many unkind. Next to the comforts of religion are those of friendship and society; therefore to be friendless is (as to this life) almost to be comfortless; and to those who have had friends, but have lost them, the calamity is the more grievous. With this the psalmist here closes his complaint, as if this were that which completed his woe and gave the finishing stroke to the melancholy piece. If our friends are put far from us by scattering providences, nay, if by death our acquaintance are removed into darkness, we have reason to look upon it as a sore affliction, but must acknowledge and submit to the hand of God in it.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 10–18. Public domain.
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Augustine of HippoAD 430
Exposition on Psalm 88
For this purpose he briefly sketches in what follows the troubles of Christ's body. For it is not in the Head alone that they took place, since it is said to Saul too, "Why do you persecute Me?" [Acts 9:4] and Paul himself, as if placed as an elect member in the same body, says, "That I may fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh." [Colossians 1:24] "Why then, Lord, have You cast off my soul? Why hidest Thou Your face from me?"
"I am poor, and in toils from my youth up: and when lifted up, I was thrown down, and troubled" [Psalm 88:15].
"Your wraths went over me: Your terrors disturbed me" [Psalm 88:16].
"They came round about me all day like water: they compassed me about together" [Psalm 88:17].
"A friend You have put far from me: and mine acquaintance from my misery" [Psalm 88:18]. All these evils have taken place, and are happening in the limbs of Christ's body, and God turns away His face from their prayers, by not hearing as to what they wish for, since they know not that the fulfilment of their wishes would not be good for them. The Church is "poor," as she hungers and thirsts in her wanderings for that food with which she shall be filled in her own country: she is "in toils from her youth up," as the very Body of Christ says in another Psalm, "Many a time have they overcome me from my youth." And for this reason some of her members are lifted up even in this world, that in them may be the greater lowliness. Over that Body, which constitutes the unity of the Saints and the faithful, whose Head is Christ, go the wraths of God: yet abide not: since it is of the unbelieving only that it is written, that "the wrath of God abides upon him." [John 3:36] The terrors of God disturb the weakness of the faithful, because all that can happen, even though it actually happen not, it is prudent to fear; and sometimes these terrors so agitate the reflecting soul with the evils impending around, that they seem to flow around us on every side like water, and to encircle us in our fears. And as the Church while on pilgrimage is never free from these evils, happening as they do at one moment in one of her limbs, at another in another, he adds, "all day," signifying the continuation in time, to the end of this world. Often too, friends and acquaintances, their worldly interests at stake, in their terror forsake the Saints; of which says the Apostle, "all men forsook me: may it not be laid to their charge." [2 Timothy 4:16] But to what purpose is all this, but that early in the morning, that is, after the night of unbelief, the prayers of this holy Body may in the light of faith prevent God, until the coming of that salvation, which we are at present saved by hoping for, not by having, while we await it with patience and faithfulness. Then the Lord will not repel our prayers, as there will no longer be anything to be sought for, but everything that has been rightly asked, will be obtained: nor will He turn His face away from us, since we shall see Him as He is: [1 John 3:2] nor shall we be poor, because God will be our abundance, all in all: [1 Corinthians 15:28] nor shall we suffer, as there will be no more weakness: nor after exaltation shall we meet with humiliation and confusion, as there will be no adversity there: nor bear even the transient wrath of God, as we shall abide in His abiding love: nor will His terrors agitate us, because His promises realized will bless us: nor will our friend and acquaintance, being terrified, be far from us, where there will be no foe to dread.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Psalms 88:17 is a profound and poignant lament from the darkest of the psalms, articulating the psalmist Heman's overwhelming and relentless suffering. Through vivid aquatic imagery, the verse portrays an individual drowning in affliction, besieged daily by troubles that encircle him completely, leaving no avenue for escape or relief. It captures the raw, unvarnished cry of a soul experiencing profound abandonment and despair, highlighting the continuous and inescapable nature of his distress.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Psalms 88 stands unique within the Psalter as a "dark psalm" or "psalm of unremitting lament." Unlike most laments, it offers no turn to praise, no resolution, and no expression of hope at its conclusion, ending instead on a note of utter darkness and isolation. The preceding verses establish the psalmist's deep physical and spiritual distress, describing him as one cast into the pit, near death, and afflicted by God's wrath, as seen in Psalms 88:6 and Psalms 88:7. He speaks of being abhorred by friends and acquaintances, confined in darkness, a sentiment powerfully conveyed in Psalms 88:8. Verse 17 continues this narrative of relentless oppression, intensifying the imagery of being utterly submerged and surrounded by his troubles, setting the stage for the psalm's bleak conclusion where darkness is his only companion, as articulated in Psalms 88:18.
Historical & Cultural Context: While the precise historical setting of Heman the Ezrahite is not detailed, his authorship suggests a connection to the Levitical musicians appointed by David, as recorded in 1 Chronicles 6:33. This background underscores that even those deeply involved in temple worship and service could experience profound spiritual and emotional desolation. The imagery of "water" as an overwhelming force would have resonated deeply in an ancient Near Eastern context, where floods were a tangible threat, symbolizing chaos, divine judgment, and inescapable danger. The concept of being "compassed about" or encircled was also a common experience in warfare and siege, evoking a sense of being trapped and under relentless attack, whether from physical enemies or, in this spiritual context, the relentless pressures of affliction.
Key Themes: The central theme of Psalms 88:17, and indeed the entire psalm, is unrelenting and overwhelming affliction. The metaphor of "water" represents the sheer magnitude and engulfing nature of the psalmist's distress, portraying him as drowning in sorrow or trouble, a theme echoed elsewhere in the Psalter when describing profound despair, such as in Psalms 69:1-2. The phrase "daily like water" emphasizes the continuous and unending nature of his suffering, highlighting that it is not a momentary trial but a constant, oppressive burden that never recedes. Furthermore, "they compassed me about together" conveys a profound sense of isolation within an inescapable circle of pain, where the psalmist feels hemmed in by his troubles, with no escape or relief. This feeling of being surrounded by enemies or troubles is a recurring motif in the Psalms, reflecting the vulnerability of the righteous in a fallen world, as seen in Psalms 22:16.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Psalms 88:17 masterfully employs several literary devices to convey the psalmist's profound distress. The most prominent is Simile, where the psalmist's troubles are explicitly compared "like water," evoking the overwhelming, suffocating, and chaotic nature of a flood. This aquatic imagery effectively communicates the sheer volume and relentless pressure of his suffering. Hyperbole is also present, as the "daily" inundation and complete encirclement suggest an extreme, almost unbearable degree of affliction, emphasizing the psalmist's subjective experience of total despair. Furthermore, the two clauses, while distinct, function as a form of Parallelism, specifically Synonymous Parallelism, where the second clause ("they compassed me about together") reiterates and intensifies the meaning of the first ("They came round about me daily like water"). This repetition serves to emphasize the relentless and inescapable nature of the psalmist's predicament, reinforcing the central theme of overwhelming and pervasive suffering.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Psalms 88:17 provides a crucial theological insight into the depths of human suffering and the biblical permission to express profound lament. It acknowledges that faith does not exempt one from experiencing overwhelming, relentless despair, even to the point of feeling utterly abandoned by God and humanity. This psalm, through its unvarnished portrayal of suffering, validates the rawest human emotions in the presence of the Divine, reminding us that God is big enough to receive our darkest cries without offering an immediate, simplistic resolution. It underscores the mysterious reality of suffering, even for the righteous, and invites believers to bring their full, unedited pain before the Lord, trusting in His presence even in the midst of perceived absence.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Psalms 88:17 offers a profound and sobering validation for those experiencing deep, unrelenting suffering, whether from physical illness, mental health struggles, grief, or spiritual desolation. It reminds us that the biblical narrative does not shy away from the raw realities of human pain, even when that pain feels endless and without visible hope. This verse grants us permission to express our profound despair and feelings of being overwhelmed directly to God, without needing to sugarcoat our emotions or force a premature sense of resolution. In a world that often pressures individuals to "stay positive" or quickly "get over" their struggles, Psalms 88:17 stands as a powerful counter-narrative, affirming that lament, even without immediate answers or a clear path to hope, is a vital and legitimate part of the spiritual journey. It encourages us to bring our whole, unvarnished selves to God, trusting that even in the deepest pits, our cries are heard, even if the darkness persists.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does Psalms 88 end without hope, unlike most other laments?
Answer: Psalms 88 is unique in the Psalter precisely because it offers no clear resolution or expression of hope, ending instead on a note of profound darkness and isolation, as seen in Psalms 88:18. This distinct characteristic serves several important theological purposes. Firstly, it validates the experience of unremitting suffering, acknowledging that not all pain has an immediate, discernible end or a neat resolution within our earthly experience. Secondly, it teaches us that lament itself is a legitimate form of prayer and worship, even when it is raw and without a clear 'turn' to praise. It demonstrates that God is big enough to hear and hold our deepest despair without requiring us to pretend we are okay. Finally, it may serve as a prophetic foreshadowing of the ultimate suffering of Christ, who experienced the depths of abandonment and despair without immediate human comfort, culminating in His cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Psalms 88:17, with its portrayal of relentless, overwhelming suffering and profound abandonment, finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. While Heman's lament is deeply personal, it echoes the very depths of suffering that the Son of God would endure. Jesus, in His incarnation, truly experienced being "compassed about" by the forces of sin, evil, and human rejection, culminating in His agony in Gethsemane and on the cross. In Gethsemane, He was "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death" (Matthew 26:38), feeling the crushing weight of the world's sin pressing in on Him "daily like water." On the cross, He experienced the ultimate abandonment, crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46), a forsaking that allowed Him to be "compassed about together" by the wrath of God against sin, so that we might never be. His descent into the "lowest pit" of death and separation from the Father (Psalms 88:6) was for our salvation. Thus, the dark lament of Psalms 88, seemingly without hope, becomes a prophetic anticipation of the one who would plumb the very depths of human and divine abandonment, emerging victorious over the waters of death and despair, offering true hope and rescue to all who are overwhelmed and bringing them into the glorious light of His resurrection (Hebrews 2:9).