Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 86:13
For great [is] thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
For great is thy mercy toward me – In respect to me; or, Thou hast manifested great mercy to me; to wit, in past times. He makes use of this now as an argument or reason why God should interpose again.
(a) He had shown on former occasions that he had power to save;
(b) the fact that he had thus treated him as his friend was a reason why he should now befriend him.
And thou hast delivered my soul – My life. The meaning is, that he had kept him alive in times of imminent danger. At the same time David could say, as every child of God can say, that God had delivered his soul in the strict and proper sense of the term – from sin, and death, and hell itself.
From the lowest hell – Margin, grave; Hebrew, she‘ol; Greek, Hades. See the word explained in the notes at Isa 14:9. Compare the notes at Job 10:21-22. The word rendered lowest means simply under, or beneath: the grave or hades beneath. The idea of lowest, or the superlative degree, is not necessarily implied in the word. The idea of the grave as deep, or as under us, however, is implied, and the psalmist means to say that he had been saved from that deep dwelling-place – from the abode of departed spirits, to which the dead descend under ground. The meaning is, that he had been kept alive; but the greatness of the mercy is designed to be set forth by having before the mind a vivid idea of the darkness, the horror, and the gloom of the world to which the dead descend, and where they dwell.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 86:13
Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell
Saved from the depths
A plan has lately been proposed and successfully employed for raising the cargoes of sunken vessels.
A huge electro-magnet, operated from the deck of a vessel, is lowered to the submerged cargo; and if it be of a character subject to the influence of magnetism, it is attracted and lifted by this power, and thus easily saved. There is a power from on high which came to seek and save that which was lost. Down in the murky depths of the waters of sin, this magnet of love draws to itself sinful souls, and lifts them by its power to the bright sunlight and pure air above. Not by any virtue or power of their own–simply by the love that passeth understanding and the saving power of the Divine Redeemer–they are uplifted from the depths and made to stand among the rescued ones of the Lord. (Cora S. Day.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.] This must mean more than the grave; a hell below hell-a place of perdition for the soul, as the grave is a place of corruption for the body.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My soul; my person or life, as in the next verse.
From the lowest hell; either,
1. From hell properly so called. Or rather,
2. From extreme and desperate dangers and miseries, by comparing this with Deu 32:22, and with Psa 88:6. Thou hast laid me in the lowest (the same word in the Hebrew which is here) pit; where by the pit he means, as is evident and confessed, the grave, which is commonly called sheol, the word here used.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13, 14. The reason: God haddelivered him from death and the power of insolent, violent, andgodless persecutors (Psa 54:3;Eze 8:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For great is thy mercy toward me,…. Both in things temporal and spiritual; an instance of which follows:
and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell; from a very distressed and disconsolate condition, being almost in despair, under a deep sense of sin, and a fearful apprehension of the wrath of God, as, particularly, when he was charged by Nathan; or from hell itself, and the severest punishment in it; from the second and eternal death, which every man is deserving of, and are only delivered from by the grace of God, and blood of Christ: this shows the sense the psalmist had of the just demerit of sin, and his thankfulness for deliverance from it; see
Ps 56:13. Kimchi interprets it of the grave; but says, there are some that interpret it of the judgment, or condemnation of hell: such who have escaped great dangers in long and perilous journeys, or have been delivered from threatening diseases, are said to be saved from hell r.
r Vide Heraclit. de Incredib. c. 21. p. 86.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the 13th verse, he sets forth the reason of this, which is, because, in delivering him, God had given a singular and remarkable proof of his mercy. To place in a stronger light the greatness of this benefit, he describes the dangers from which he had been delivered, by the expression, the lower grave; as if he had said, I have not been held down by one death only, but have been thrust down into the lowest depths of the grave, so that my circumstances required the hand of God to be stretched out to me in a wonderful manner. By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we are delivered from a still deeper abyss of death; and such being the case, our ingratitude will be inexcusable, unless each of us exercise himself to the utmost of his power in celebrating this deliverance. If David so highly magnified the name of God merely on account of the prolongation of his life for a short time, what praises are due for this unparalleled redemption by which we are drawn from the depths of hell and elevated to heaven? The Papists attempt to found an argument on this passage in support of their doctrine of Purgatory, as if that were an upper hell, while there was another lower; (490) but this argument is too rotten to stand in need of refutation.
(490) Street reads, “That those who hate me may fear. The word יראו,” he observes, “if considered without the points, may be the third person plural of ירא, to fear; but the authors of all the versions seem to have derived it from ראה, to see I read לטובך instead of לטובה.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) Lowest hell.Literally, shel, beneath, a fuller expression for the usual shel, underworld. (See Note, Psa. 6:5.) There is no comparison implied as in the Authorised Version. It is evident from the next verse that what is meant is danger of death from violence.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Lowest hell The lowest grave, or pit. , ( sheol,) is generally used in this sense, and the same form of confession as in the text occurs Psa 30:3, where the common version has grave “Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave.” And in Hos 13:14, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave O grave I will be thy destruction.” This deliverance from “the deepest sheol” ( grave) was a rescue from imminent and terrible destruction; it was as a resurrection from the dead. The remembrance of it now comes up to the psalmist, and becomes a ground of hope and pledge of renewed mercy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 86:13. Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell Thou hast delivered my life from the grave beneath. Green. “Thou hast often snatched me from extreme dangers, (See 1 Samuel 23 : &c.) which, like an abyss and bottomless pit, were ready to swallow me up.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
This is evidently a direct reference to Christ. Compare Psa 16:10 , with Act 13:34-37Act 13:34-37 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 86:13 For great [is] thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
Ver. 13. Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell ] That is, from deadly and desperate dangers. Some understand it to be the damnation of hell which David had deserved by his sins. The Rabbis’ gloss is, A loco adulteris appropriato.
the lowest hell = Sheol beneath.
hell. Hebrew Sheol. App-35. Not the language of “Semitic heathenism”, but the inspired revelation of Divine eschatology.
hell
Heb. “Sheol,” (See Scofield “Hab 2:5”).
great: Psa 57:10, Psa 103:8-12, Psa 108:4, Luk 1:58
and thou: Psa 16:10, Psa 56:13, Psa 88:6, Psa 116:8, Job 33:18, Job 33:22, Job 33:24, Job 33:28, Isa 38:17, Jon 2:3-6, 1Th 1:10
hell: or, grave
Reciprocal: Exo 14:8 – with an high hand Deu 32:22 – lowest 2Ch 1:8 – Thou has showed Psa 6:4 – deliver Psa 9:13 – thou Psa 18:5 – The sorrows Psa 30:3 – brought Psa 40:2 – brought Psa 49:15 – the grave Psa 51:14 – tongue Psa 59:16 – sing aloud Psa 63:9 – go Psa 66:20 – General Psa 71:20 – shalt bring Psa 89:1 – I will Psa 103:1 – all that Psa 119:7 – I will Psa 119:156 – are thy Psa 138:1 – I will praise Hos 13:14 – ransom Jon 2:2 – out Luk 16:23 – in hell Act 2:27 – leave
86:13 For great [is] thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from {i} the lowest hell.
(i) That is, from most great danger of death: out of which none but the almighty hand of God could deliver him.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes