1 A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. To the choirmaster. Upon Mahalath Leannoth. A maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. LORD, God of my salvation, by day I have cried out, in the night before you.
Cyril of Jerusalem · AD 386 Accept an additional testimony from the eighty-seventh psalm [LXX], where Christ speaks in the prophets—for he who then spoke afterwards came among us: "O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day and in the night before you"; and subsequently, "I am become as a man without help, free among the dead." He did not say, "I am become a man without help," but "as a man…
Jerome · AD 420 At the very outset the title is most difficult, and although we have not yet begun the harbor of exposition, nevertheless the most obscure questions press upon us. "A song of a psalm, for the sons of Chore, unto the end, for meleth, to be answered, of the understanding of Eman the Ezraite." You see that in the individual words there are individual questions.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before You" [Psalm 88:1]. Let us therefore now hear the voice of Christ singing before us in prophecy, to whom His own choir should respond either in imitation, or in thanksgiving.
I Cry Out before You 2 Let my prayer come before you; stretch out your ear to my ringing cry.
Jerome · AD 420 "Let my prayer come in before thee." "Into thy hands, Father, I commend my spirit." "Let my prayer come in before thee. Incline thine ear to my petition." Where are the anthropomorphites, who suppose that God has bodily members? "Incline thine ear, O God." It is the voice of the Son to the Father, speaking in our person.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "O let my prayer enter into Your presence, incline Your ear unto my calling" [Psalm 88:2]. For even our Lord prayed, not in the form of God, but in the form of a servant; for in this He also suffered.
3 For my soul is full of evils, and my life has reached Sheol.
Jerome · AD 420 "For my soul is filled with evils." I bear the sins of many, therefore I grieve for all. "My soul is filled with evils." I bear evils, that I may lay them down upon the cross. "And my life hath drawn near to hell." Beautifully he said "hath drawn near": for He was not held fast by hell, but for our sake He drew near into hell.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "For my soul is filled with evils, and my life draws near unto hell" [Psalm 88:3]. Dare we speak of the Soul of Christ as "filled with evils," when the passion had strength as far as it had any, only over the body?...The soul therefore may feel pain without the body: but without the soul the body cannot.
4 I am reckoned with those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength,
Jerome · AD 420 "I am counted among them that go down into the pit." This my murderers supposed: that I, going down like the rest of men into the prison of the underworld, was to be held back in the lower pit; not knowing that I had gone down for this reason, that I might rather draw out with me those who were held fast in that very place.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Lastly, the very thing said by our Saviour on the Cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," is expressed in this Psalm below, "I am counted as one of them that go down into the pit": by them who knew not what they were doing, when they imagined that He died like other men, subjected to necessity, and overcome by it.
5 set free among the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, and they are cut off from your hand.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Nor was Mary less than was befitting the mother of Christ. When the apostles fled, she stood before the cross and with reverent gaze beheld her Son's wounds, for she awaited not her child's death but the world's salvation.
Jerome · AD 420 "Like the slain that sleep in the sepulchres." Beautifully he said "like the slain": for He had no wound, but for the salvation of men He received a wound, as Isaiah says, "He himself bore our wounds, and grieves for us."
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Free among the dead" [Psalm 88:5]. In these words our Lord's Person is most clearly shown: for who else is free among the dead but He who though in the likeness of sinful flesh is alone among sinners without sin?
6 You have put me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the depths.
Jerome · AD 420 "They have laid me in the lower pit." I went down to the depths of hell, that I might free all from the bonds of hell. "In the dark places, and in the shadow of death." He did not say "in death," but "in the shadow of death." Death was not inflicted on me by the Jews, but the shadow of death: because for the salvation of men I went down of my own will.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "They laid Me in the lowest pit" [Psalm 88:6], that is, the deepest pit. For so it is in the Greek. But what is the lowest pit, but the deepest woe, than which there is none more deep?
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and with all your breakers you have afflicted me. Selah.
Jerome · AD 420 "Thy fury is confirmed upon me." For this reason all thy fury came upon me, that it might depart from others. "And all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me." Upon me the whole tempest thundered down, that calm might come to the world.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Your indignation lies hard upon Me" [Psalm 88:7], or, as other copies have it, "Your anger;" or, as others, "Your fury:" the Greek word θυμὸς having undergone different interpretations.
8 You have put my acquaintances far from me; you have made me abominations to them; I am shut in and cannot go out.
Jerome · AD 420 "I was delivered up, and came not forth." What is this that he said, "I was delivered up, and came not forth"? The Jews delivered me up, and yet on account of my clemency I did not forsake them, but I dwelt among them with affection.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "You have put Mine acquaintance far from Me" [Psalm 88:8]. If we understand by acquaintance those whom He knew, it will be all men; for whom knew He not?
9 My eye has languished from affliction; I have called on you, LORD, every day; I have spread out my palms to you.
Jerome · AD 420 "My eyes languished through poverty." I who was whole in my majesty was made weak for the sins of men.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "My eyes became weak from want" [Psalm 88:9]. For what eyes are we to understand? If the eyes of the flesh in which He suffered, we do not read that His eyes became weak from want, that is, from hunger, in His Passion, as is often the case; as He was betrayed after His Supper, and crucified on the same day: if the inner eyes, how were they weakened from want, in which there was…
10 Will you do a wonder for the dead? Will the shades rise and give you thanks? Selah.
Jerome · AD 420 "Wilt thou show wonders to the dead?" Not to those who, living, are dead, but to me who live in thee. "Or shall physicians raise them up?" and the rest. Not the spices of physicians, but thou, Father, raisest me up; nor they, but I will confess among the peoples.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 But as His good works profited only the predestined to eternal salvation, and not all men, nor even all those among whom they were done, he adds, "Dost thou show wonders among the dead?" (ver. 10).
11 Will your loyal love be recounted in the grave, your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Jerome · AD 420 "Shall anyone declare in the sepulchre," and so forth. He shall not praise thee who is buried in the riches of the world, nor he who dwells in the ruin of sin.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Shall one show Thy loving-kindness in the grave, or Thy faithfulness in destruction?" (ver. 11). The word "show" is of course understood as if repeated, Shall any show Thy faithfulness in destruction? Scripture loves to connect loving-kindness and faithfulness, especially in the Psalms.
12 Will your wonder be known in the darkness, and your righteousness in the land of forgetting?
Jerome · AD 420 "Shall thy wonders be known in the dark, and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness? And I have cried to thee, O Lord, and in the morning my prayer shall come before thee." That is, because thou wilt glorify me by a morning resurrection.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Shall thy wondrous works be known in the dark, and thy righteousness in the land where all things are forgotten?" the dark answers to the land of forgetfulness: for the unbelieving are meant by the dark, as the Apostle saith, "For ye were sometimes darkness;" and the land where all things are forgotten, is the man who has forgotten God; for the unbelieving soul can arrive at d…
13 But I have cried out to you, LORD, and in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 Why, LORD, do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
Jerome · AD 420 "Why, O Lord, dost thou repel my prayer," that this cup should not pass from me?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 But that those prayers, the blessings of which surpass all words, may be more fervent and more constant, the gift that shall last unto eternity is deferred, while transitory evils are allowed to thicken.
15 I am afflicted and expiring from youth; I have borne your terrors; I am numb.
Jerome · AD 420 "I am poor, and in labors from my youth": from the time of the flesh assumed. "Being exalted": that is, upon the cross. "I have been humbled": that is, in the sepulchre.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 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…
16 Your burnings have passed over me; your dreads have destroyed me.
Jerome · AD 420 "Thy wraths have passed over me." They passed, and did not remain.
17 They have surrounded me like water all the day; they have encircled me together.
Jerome · AD 420 "They have surrounded me like water all the day." The Jews in the waves of persecutions. "They surrounded me together." The Pharisees with the priests. Pilate with the princes and the peoples.
18 You have put far from me lover and friend; my acquaintances are darkness.
Jerome · AD 420 "Thou hast put far from me friend and neighbor, and my acquaintances because of misery." Because of the confusion of the passion, even the apostles themselves were put far from him.