Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 88:7
Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.
7. Thy wrath &c.] Cp. Psa 32:4; Psa 38:2.
thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves ] Cp. Psa 42:7 for the metaphor.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thy wrath lieth hard upon me – Presses me down; burdens me. The meaning is, that that which was the proper and usual expression of wrath or displeasure – to wit, bodily and mental suffering – pressed hard on him. and crushed him to the earth. These bodily sufferings he interpreted, in the sad and gloomy state of mind in which he was, as evidences of the divine displeasure against himself.
And thou hast afflicted me – Thou hast oppressed me, or broken me down.
With all thy waves – literally, thy breakers; that is, with expressions of wrath like the waves of the sea, which foam and break on the shore. Nothing could be a more striking image of wrath. Those breakers seem to be so furious and angry, they rush along with so much impetuosity, they are so mighty, they dash with such fury on the shore, that it seems as if nothing could stand before them. Yet they find a barrier such as we should little expect. The low and humble beach made of shifting sand, where there seems to be no stability, is an effectual barrier against all their rage; as the humble piety of the child of God, apparently without strength to resist calamity, bears all the beatings of affliction, and maintains its place as the heavy waves of sorrow roll upon it. On the meaning of the word used here, and on the idea expressed, see the notes at Psa 42:7.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 88:7
Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves.
For the troubled
As men, the people of God share the common lot of men, and what is that but trouble? Yea, there are some sorrows which are peculiar to Christians, some extra griefs of which they partake because they are believers, though these are something more than balanced by those peculiar and bitter troubles which belong to the ungodly, and are engendered by their transgressions, from which the Christian is delivered.
I. Expound the text.
1. Tried saints are very prone to overrate their afflictions.
2. Saints do well to trace all their trials to their God.
3. Afflicted children of God do well to have a keen eye to the wrath that mingles with their troubles. God will visit His childrens transgressions. He will frequently let common sinners go on throughout life unrebuked; but not so His children. If you were going home to-day, and saw a number of boys throwing stones and breaking windows, you might not interfere with them-, but if you saw your own lad among them, I will be bound you would fetch him out, and make him repent of it. Perhaps the reason of your trouble may not be a sin committed, but a duty neglected. Search and look, and see wherein you have been guilty of omission. When you have so done let me give one word of caution. Do not expect when in the trouble to perceive any immediate benefit resulting from it. Remember that word, Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness. The gardener takes his knife and prunes the fruit trees to make them bring forth more fruit; his little child comes trudging at his heels and cries, Father, I do not see that the fruit comes on the trees after you have cut them. No, dear child, it is not likely you would, but come round in a few months when the season of fruit has come, and then shall you see the golden apples which thank the knife. Graces which are meant to endure require time for their production, and are not thrust forth and ripened in a night. Were they so soon ripe they might be as speedily rotten.
II. The benefits of trouble.
1. Severe trouble in a true believer has the effect of loosening the roots of his soul earthward and tightening the anchor-hold of his heart heavenward. How can he love the world which has become so drear to him? Why should he seek after grapes so bitter to his taste?
2. Affliction frequently opens truths to us, and opens us to the truth. Blessed is that man who receives the truth of God into his inmost self; he shall never lose it, but it shall be the life of his spirit.
3. Affliction, when sanctified by the Holy Spirit, brings much glory to God out of Christians, through their experience of the Lords faithfulness to them.
4. Affliction gives us through grace the inestimable privilege of conformity to the Lord Jesus. We pray to be like Christ, but how can we be if we are not men of sorrows at all, and never become the acquaintance of grief?
5. Our sufferings are of great service to us when God blesses them, for they help us to be useful to others. Luther was right, when he said affliction was the best book in the ministers library. How can the man of God sympathize with the afflicted ones, if he knows nothing at all about their troubles? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. Thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves.] The figures in this verse seem to be taken from a tempest at sea. The storm is fierce, and the waves cover the ship.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thy wrath; either, first, the sense of thy wrath; or rather, secondly, the effects of it; as the next clause explains this.
With all thy waves; with thy judgments, breaking in furiously upon me like the waves of the sea.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. Compare Ps38:2, on first, and Ps 42:7,on last clause.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The wrath lieth hard upon me,…. So some good men apprehend, when they are under afflictive dispensations of Providence, and are left of God, and have not his immediate presence, and the discoveries of his love; though fury is not in him, nor does any wrath in reality fall upon them, only it seems so to them; see Ps 38:1, but the wrath of God did really lie with all the effects of it upon Christ, as the surety of his people, when he was made sin, and a curse for them; see Ps 89:38,
and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves; the afflictions of God’s people are compared to waves and billows of the sea, which are many, and come one upon the back of another, and threaten to overwhelm and sink; see Ps 42:7 and so the sufferings of Christ are signified by waters coming into him, and floods overflowing him; and hence they are called a baptism, Ps 69:1, and these were brought upon him by the Lord; he spared him not; he laid the whole chastisement, all the punishment due to the sins of his people, on him; he caused every wave to come upon him, and him to endure all sorrows and sufferings the law and justice of God could require.
Selah. [See comments on Ps 3:2].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Some translate the first clause of the 7 verse, Thy indignation hath approached upon me; and the Hebrew word סמך, samach, is sometimes to be taken in this sense. But from the scope of the passage, it must necessarily be understood here, as in many other places, in the sense of to surround, or to lie heavy upon; for when the subject spoken of is a man sunk into a threefold grave, it would be too feeble to speak of the wrath of God as merely approaching him. The translation which I have adopted is peculiarly suitable to the whole drift of the text. It views the prophet as declaring, that he sustained the whole burden of God’s wrath; seeing he was afflicted with His waves. Farther, as so dreadful a flood did not prevent him from lifting up his heart and prayers to God, we may learn from his example to cast the anchor of our faith and prayers direct into heaven in all the perils of shipwreck to which we may be exposed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) And thou hast afflicted.Literally, And thou hast pressed (me) down with all thy breakers, supplying the object, and taking the accusative in the text as the instrument, as in Psa. 102:23, where the same verb is used (Authorised Version, weakened).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves The figure of the deeps, Psa 88:6, is brought forward. He is in the boiling depths of the ocean, and a heavy tempest is raging over him. See Jon 2:3; Psa 42:7
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 88:7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.
Ver. 7. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me ] So it did upon David, Psa 32:3 , but especially upon the Son of David, the Lord Christ, of whose sufferings these were but types, or as chips of his cross.
And thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
upon me. Same word as “over me”, Psa 88:16, with which the member corresponds.
Selah. Connecting Psa 88:6 with its amplification in verses: Psa 88:8, Psa 88:9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Thy wrath: Psa 38:1, Psa 90:7, Psa 102:10, Job 6:4, Job 10:16, Joh 3:36, Rom 2:5-9, 1Pe 2:24, Rev 6:16, Rev 6:17
with: Psa 42:7, Jon 2:3
Reciprocal: Job 9:18 – will not Psa 69:2 – deep waters Psa 116:3 – sorrows Psa 130:1 – Out of Lam 3:1 – the man Mar 14:50 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
88:7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy {e} waves. Selah.
(e) The storms of your wrath have overwhelmed me.