Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 88:14
LORD, why castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?
14. Questions of surprise and expostulation. Cp. Psa 74:1; Psa 77:7. For the second line cp. Job 13:24; Psa 13:1. God “shuts out his prayer,” Lam 3:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Lord, why castest thou off my soul? – Why dost thou forsake or abandon me? Why is it that thou dost not interpose, since thou hast all power, and since thou art a God of mercy? Why dost thou not deliver me from my troubles? How often are good people constrained to ask this question! How often does this language express exactly what is passing in their minds! How difficult, too, it is to answer the question, and to see why that God who has all power, and who is infinitely benevolent, does not interpose to deliver his people in affliction! The answer to this question cannot be fully given in this world; there will be an answer furnished doubtless in the future life.
Why hidest thou thy face from me? – Why dost thou not lift up the light of thy countenance upon me, and show me thy favor? God seemed to turn away from him. He seemed unwilling even to look upon the sufferer. He permitted him to bear his sorrows, unpitied and alone.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 88:14
Why hidest Thou Thy face from me?
Divine hiding
God sometimes hides Himself in nature that He may reveal Himself in providence; He sometimes hides Himself in providence that He may reveal Himself in grace; and He sometimes hides Himself in grace that He may reveal Himself in glory.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Why castest thou off my soul?] Instead of my soul, several of the ancient Versions have my prayer. Why dost thou refuse to hear me, and thus abandon me to death?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This proceeding seems not to agree with the benignity of thy nature, nor with the manner of thy dealing with thy people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. On the terms (Psa 27:9;Psa 74:1; Psa 77:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Lord, why castest thou off my soul?…. Here begins his prayer, which he determined to present early in the morning, and consists of expostulations, and a representation of his distressed case: this shows that he was under soul desertion, and which was what so greatly afflicted him; imagining that his soul was cast off by the Lord, and had no more share in his affection, and was no more under his care, and in his sight: such expostulations of the saints, the church, and people of God, in a like case, are elsewhere met with,
Ps 43:3 and may be applied to Christ, when his soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death, and was made an offering for sin; and particularly when he was forsaken by his Father: the Targum is,
“why hast thou forsaken my soul?”
and rises the word “sabachtha”, which Christ did when on the cross,
Mt 27:46, the Septuagint version is,
“wherefore, O Lord, dost thou reject my prayers?”
“why hidest thou thy face from me?” which is a denial of sensible communion, a withdrawing the influences and communications of divine grace for a time; and which sometimes is the case of the best of men, as Job, David, and others; and is very grieving and distressing to them; and, for the most part, is on account of sin; it is sin which separates between God and his people, and causes him to hide his face from them, or not grant them his gracious presence: this was the case of Christ, who knew no sin, while he was suffering for the sins of his people; see Ps 69:17 compared with Mt 27:46.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
14. Wherefore, O Jehovah! wilt thou reject my soul? These lamentations at first sight would seem to indicate a state of mind in which sorrow without any consolation prevailed; but they contain in them tacit prayers. The Psalmist does not proudly enter into debate with God, but mournfully desires some remedy to his calamities. This kind of complaint justly deserves to be reckoned among the unutterable groanings of which Paul makes mention in Rom 8:26. Had the prophet thought himself rejected and abhorred by God, he certainly would not have persevered in prayer. But here he sets forth the judgment of the flesh, against which he strenuously and magnanimously struggled, that it might at length be manifest from the result that he had not prayed in vain. Although, therefore, this psalm does not end with thanksgiving, but with a mournful complaint, as if there remained no place for mercy, yet it is so much the more useful as a means of keeping us in the duty of prayer. The prophet, in heaving these sighs, and discharging them, as it were, into the bosom of God, doubtless ceased not to hope for the salvation of which he could see no signs by the eye of sense. He did not call God, at the opening of the psalm, the God of his salvation, and then bid farewell to all hope of succor from him.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) Castest thou off.The idea is that of throwing away something with loathing. (Comp. Psa. 43:2.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Lord, why Still the mystery returns to perplex. Why should God thus, by delay, seem to choose his destruction rather than his salvation?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 647
DISTRESS OF SOUL CONSIDERED
Psa 88:14-16. Lord, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me? I am afflicted, and ready to die, from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
HEMAN the Ezrahite, the author of this psalm, is thought by most to have been the grandson of Judah [Note: 1Ch 2:6.]; and to have been so eminent for wisdom, as almost to have equalled Solomon himself [Note: 1Ki 4:31.]. But he seems rather to have been the grandson of Shemuel, or Samuel [Note: 1Ch 6:33; 1Ch 15:19. compared with the title to Psalms 89. The grandson of Judah could not have written so about David.]. Whoever he was, he was a man greatly afflicted, and, at the time that he wrote this psalm, altogether destitute of any other consolation, than what he felt in spreading his sorrows before God. In other psalms we find many and grievous complaints; but the gloom that overspreads the mind of the author at the commencement of them, is usually dispelled before they are brought to a close; and what began with sorrow is terminated with joy. But in the composition before us there is no such pleasing change: it is nothing but one continued complaint from beginning to end. In discoursing on it, we shall point out,
I.
The state to which a righteous soul may be reduced
Truly the state of Heman was most afflictive
[There can be no doubt but that he was a righteous man. Had he not been so, he would not have addressed Jehovah in such expressions of holy confidence, as The Lord God of his salvation; nor could he have affirmed, that night and day he had poured out his prayers and cries before him [Note: ver. 1, 2, 9, 13.]. Yet behold, how heavy, how exceeding heavy, was his affliction! His soul was so full of troubles, that they brought him nigh to the grave [Note: ver. 3.]. Hear how he himself represents them, referring them all at the same time to God himself as the author of them: Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me; and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves [Note: ver. 6, 7.]. To the same effect he speaks also in the words of our text, complaining of the dereliction he experienced in this hour of his calamity, and of the terrors which he endured, which, whilst they were rapidly bringing down his body to the grave, had well nigh bereaved him of his senses, and reduced him to a state of utter distraction.]
And such, alas! is the state of many in every age of the Church
[Some there are of a low, nervous, hypochondriac temperament both of mind and body, and who, whether they were religious or not, would of necessity be of a melancholy disposition; that being their constitutional tendency, just as cheerfulness or confidence are the tendencies of others. Persons of this class view every thing in a dark unfavourable light: they forbode nothing but evil: and, if religion occupies their minds, they write bitter things against themselves, and conclude that they never can be saved. They love gloomy thoughts, and brood over them day and night; and greatly injure both their minds and bodies by ruminating on subjects that are too deep for them. They perplex themselves about the divine decrees, and thus give occasion to many to represent religion as distracting their minds. But the truth is, that they seek for nothing but poison: they have no appetite for wholesome food: and religion is no more answerable for their distraction, than a fertilizing stream is for the death of a maniac who drowns himself in it.
Some there are who are brought into this state by long and complicated troubles. The mind of man, unless supported in a miraculous way, cannot endure a pressure beyond certain limits. Even Job himself, notwithstanding his extraordinary patience, seemed at times to sink under the accumulated load of his afflictions, and to be transported beyond the bounds of sense or reason. And the dejection of many, however it appear to originate in matters connected with religion, must in reality be traced to this source: their mind is enfeebled by a complication of bodily diseases, and of worldly sorrows, and then becomes an easy prey to any discouragements which may engross its attention.
Some are broken down by means of some great transgression, which, either before, or after, their religious course, they have committed, and which has destroyed all hope of respect from man, or comfort in their own minds). To such, life is become a burthen: they cannot bear even the sight of those whose esteem they have forfeited: they affect solitude, which yet is irksome to them; and they long for death, as a relief from the torments of a self-condemning conscience. It is no wonder if such, though truly penitent before God, yield to desponding fears, and anticipate nothing but misery in the eternal world.
Some are in a more extraordinary degree than others exposed to the assaults of Satan. That powerful adversary seems, as it were, to take possession of their minds, as formerly he possessed the bodies of men: and by his fiery darts he inflicts the deadliest wounds upon their souls. He is well called, The accuser of the brethren; for he accuses them to God, as he did Job of old; and accuses them also at the bar of their own consciences, to prove them hypocrites and self-deceivers. Is it to be wondered at, if that roaring lion prevail over a weak and unprotected sheep? The wonder rather is, that any are enabled to withstand him.
But once more: there are some who by God himself are brought into manifold temptations, and are suffered to experience much darkness in their souls. And though at first sight it should seem as if these persons were less beloved of the Lord than others, the truth is, that they are often to be found amongst those who are his chief favourites: Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth; and usually, those most, who are most beloved. We cannot doubt but that Job was an object of Gods peculiar favour: yet who was ever more afflicted than he, even in the very way that we are now speaking of? Hear his own words: The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me [Note: Job 6:4.]. And need we say how deeply our blessed Lord himself was afflicted, when his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, and his mind was so distracted, that he knew not what to say [Note: Joh 12:27.]?
That God sends these dispensations to his people in love, will appear even from our text: for Heman, who was eminent for his piety, declares, that he had been so afflicted from his youth up. And where did he attain this extraordinary piety, but in the school of affliction? Whilst others were intent on pleasure, he by his troubles was led to study his own heart, and to seek an acquaintance with his God; and thus he gained a knowledge which well repaid him for all that he endured. And it is a well-known fact, that those who are most exercised with spiritual troubles, are usually best instructed in the deep things of God.
It is evident, then, that pious souls may be reduced to great distress, and that, in fact, many in every age are really so reduced; some through constitutional infirmity; some by means of accumulated afflictions; and some by an irretrievable loss of character consequent on some heinous transgression: some are brought into it by the assaults of Satan, and some by the wise and gracious appointment of their God.]
Let us now turn our attention to,
II.
The reflections which naturally arise from the subject
And,
1.
How great is the evil and bitterness of sin
[If there had been no sin, there would have been no sorrow. Sorrow is the fruit of sin; the fruit which immediately sprang up, as soon as this root of bitterness was planted in the human breast. Till Adam fell, he enjoyed the sweetest intercourse with his Creator: but, after his transgression, instead of going forth as before to meet his God, he fled from his face, and strove to hide himself. From that moment has the world become a Bochim, a land of weeping and of mourning [Note: Jdg 2:4-5.]. Sorrow is that inheritance to which every child of man is born: and, even if any be truly converted unto God, still, as long as they continue in this vale of tears, they will, at a greater or smaller distance, be followed by two inseparable attendants, sorrow and sighing: and it is only when they shall arrive at the portals of heaven, that joy and gladness will be their sole companions: then indeed, but never till then, will that Scripture be fulfilled, They shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away [Note: Isa 35:10.]. How fearfully the minds even of good men may be oppressed, by a sense of Gods displeasure against sin, will appear from the experience of David; who ate ashes like bread, and mingled his drink with weeping, because of Gods indignation and wrath [Note: See Psa 38:1-2; Psa 102:9-10.]. And it yet more forcibly appears from the complaints of Job: Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions: so that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than life [Note: Job 7:14-15.]. If we look to the terrifying effects of sin on the ungodly, the sad history of Judas paints them in their true colours. Let these sorrows then, in whomsoever they be found, be traced to their proper source: and let this at least be learned from them, that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against the Lord.]
2.
What obligations to God do they lie under, who are favoured with any measure of peace and joy!
[This point, we apprehend, is by no means duly considered. It is thought by many to be a hard thing if there be any intermission of their spiritual comfort: but the wonder rather is, that there is any intermission of their sorrow. Who that considers the desert of sin, who that views the imperfection of his best services, has not reason to adore and magnify his God, for the willingness he shews to revive the hearts of the contrite? Were God extreme to mark what is done amiss, the experience in our text would be the lot of all without exception, even of those who should find grace in the eternal world. But, blessed be God! this is far from being the case: there are many to whom God vouchsafes the light of his countenance, and the joys of his salvation. We desire, however, that such persons should appreciate aright the blessings conferred upon them: and that, instead of ever complaining of darkness or of trouble, they should improve every manifestation of Gods love to the furtherance of their confidence in him, and of their zeal in his service.]
3.
How astonishing was the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he undertook to redeem a ruined world!
[He well knew, that, as the surety and substitute of sinners, he must bear all that the violated law would have inflicted upon them. And, if to us, who are by nature alienated from God, it is such a dreadful thing to endure the hidings of his face and the terrors of his wrath, what must it be to that immaculate Lamb of God, who from all eternity lay in the bosom of his Father, and was daily his delight [Note: Joh 1:18 and Pro 8:30.]! Yet behold, having undertaken for us, he suffered all that was due to us, He the just, for us the unjust! From his youth up was he a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and, especially at the close of his life, he drank to the very dregs the cup of bitterness that must otherwise have been put into our hands. Truly he was made a curse for us: and so grievously did he suffer under the united assaults of men and devils, and from a sense also of his Fathers wrath, that he sweat great drops of blood, and, in the midst of his severest agonies, had yet further to bewail the hidings of his Fathers face; My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me? Let us learn to estimate as we ought this stupendous mystery, of God manifest in the flesh to expiate by his own sufferings the sins of his rebellious creatures. O let us contemplate this mystery, till we are altogether lost in wonder, love, and praise!]
4.
How awful will be the state of all who die without an interest in Christ!
[This which Heman so bitterly bewails as his portion in this world, will, in an infinitely higher degree, be the portion of all who shall perish in their sins. They will indeed be cast out from Gods sight, as objects of his everlasting abhorrence. Never to all eternity will they have one look from him, but will behold his face turned away from them, and his fierce wrath executed upon them. Verily, whilst they suffer his terrors, they will be distracted. Who can conceive the distraction of their minds at the overwhelming thought of eternity? Oh! what weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth will there be amongst that wretched assembly, whose agonies are so insupportable, and whose prospects so interminable! But thus it must be, if we will not flee to that Saviour, who has laid down his life for us. Shall we not then awake from our slumbers? Shall we not cry unto our God, now that his ear is open to our petitions? Shall we stay till we come into that place of torment, and have an impassable gulf fixed between him and us? O let us seek the Lord whilst he may be found, and call upon him whilst he is near: then, though we should not enjoy all that we may wish for here, we shall hereafter; and even, by our occasional sorrows here, be fitted for an uninterrupted fruition of his glory to all eternity.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 88:14 LORD, why castest thou off my soul? [why] hidest thou thy face from me?
Ver. 14. Lord, why castest thou off, &c. ] Luther saith of himself, that after his conversion he lay three days in desperation. And afterwards, he sometimes suffered such desertions, ut nec calor, nec sanguis, nec sensus, nec vex, superesset, saith an eyewitness (Just. Jon. Ep. ad Melan.).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
face. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Lord: Psa 43:2, Psa 77:7-9, Mat 27:46
hidest: Psa 13:1, Psa 44:24, Psa 69:17, Job 13:24
Reciprocal: Psa 10:1 – hidest Psa 44:9 – General Psa 44:23 – cast Psa 88:3 – soul Psa 89:46 – wilt Psa 102:2 – Hide Pro 18:14 – but Lam 3:56 – hide Mat 26:38 – My Mar 14:33 – and began