Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in dark places, in the deeps.
The word behind "pit" comes from ordinary life before it becomes a picture of death.
Morrish Bible Dictionarybor, beer, "pit or well dug for water," but which could be used for a dungeon. Gen. 37:20-29; Ps. 28:1; Ps. 40:2; Ps. 88:4, 6; Ezek. 26:20; Zech. 9:11; etc.
Older translations word the verse "the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps" — the wording the writers below use.
The turning point is one word: "You." What crushes this man is not his circumstances. It is the Person he finds behind them.
J. N. DarbyGod is known and looked to according to His revealed name as the only Saviour. The struggles of soul spoken of in the psalm bring him to just this point. The pressure of everything around him drives him to find that it comes from God's hand, and, more than that, from God's judgment... The great point that pressed on the spirit was death and death bearing the witness of God's wrath upon it.
What fills this darkness is anger. One writer shows why no single picture can measure it.
Numerical Bible NotesAh, it is all His anger: that is the utter misery from which there is no escape and no relief. Heat of anger, and the overwhelming waves that break on him wave after wave: the psalm uses every picture it has. Yet all pictures fail to convey the dread reality, when it is God whose wrath is upon us. For "if God is for us, who can be against us?" And then, on the other hand, if He is against us, where can anyone find help or hope?
Many writers hear these words as the Lord's own at the cross. Read that way, the verse settles who was in control while men did their worst.
Hamilton SmithMen may think they can crucify the Lord, or release Him, just as they please. But the Lord can say to Pilate, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above" (John 19:11). No eye could pierce the darkness of that great scene when the fire and the knife fell upon Christ. But all that took place then was taken from God's hand, for Christ could say, "You have laid Me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Your wrath lies hard upon Me, and You have afflicted Me with all Your waves."
And read that way, the words rule out any softening of what He endured.
J. N. DarbyThis is no escape from a state of distance from God, and no way out of it. He is afflicted with all God's waves: He is in the lowest pit. His soul is cast off. God's fierce wrath went over Him. His terrors cut Him off.
Commentators differ on how far these words fit the man who first sang them. One writer marks the limit sharply.
L. M. Grant"You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths" (v. 6). Actually, this is not true, for the lowest pit is for those who reject God and His grace altogether. However, he feels God's wrath lying heavily on him. Even so, it is not true that God has afflicted him with all His waves (v. 7). Only One could truly say, "All Your waves and billows have gone over Me." This refers to God's judgment of Christ at Calvary for our sins.
For anyone down in the depths, that ground is not unexplored.
J. N. DarbyIt will give comfort, when down in the depths, to know that One has gone down into the depths for him; the soul will find Christ has traced all the way for him... There is no place, from the dust of death to the highest place in glory, that He has not been in for us. He has gone under it all, sins included.
- Pit — the word means a dug well that doubled as a dungeon. A real hole in the ground becomes the picture of death closing over a life.
- Hand — the sufferer traces his whole pressure past people and circumstances back to God's hand, and further still, to God's judgment.
- Wrath — anger fills the darkness. The piled-up images of pit, deeps and waves all fail to measure it. If God is against a man, no help remains anywhere.
- Voice — many hear Christ here, in a pit He never escaped and never got Himself out of. Others hold that the lowest pit was never the believer's real place, only his feeling. Only Christ could say all God's waves went over Him.
- Comfort — the depths are no longer unexplored. One has gone down there first. No place, from the dust of death to the height of glory, is untrodden for us.
Thy fury lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted [me] with all thy waves. Selah.
Psalm 88 is the darkest song in the book. Verse 7 sits at its centre: the sufferer traces his trouble past every human cause and lays it at God's own door. Two questions press on any reader. Whose voice is this? And can the God he calls the God of his salvation be the same God whose anger presses down here?
The trouble here has one source, and it is not enemies.
J. N. DarbyPsalm 88 puts the faithful remnant of Israel under the deep and dreadful sense of a broken law, and of God's fierce wrath, which justly falls on those who have broken it. The trouble is not outward sorrows now, or enemies pressing hard. It is something far, far deeper, between the soul and God… Death and wrath are the true burden of the psalm — God's terrors on the soul. For now there is no comfort, and no prospect of rescue such as there is from human oppression, however dark that looks to faith. The psalm closes in distress; its dealings are wholly with God.
The verse uses two pictures at once — weight pressing down, and water breaking over. One writer explains why even two are not enough:
Numerical Bible NotesAh, it is all His anger: that is the utter misery from which there is no escape and no relief. Heat of anger, and overwhelming waves breaking over him one after another: the psalm uses every picture, and every picture fails to convey the dreadful reality, when it is God whose wrath is on us. For "if God is for us, who can be against us?" — and then the reverse: if He is against us, where can help or hope be found?
Some object to using the word wrath for what Christ bore. One writer answered that objection straight from this psalm:
J. N. DarbyThere never was a time when the true, real, atoning sufferings needed insisting on more than now. He really did bear our sins, make propitiation, drink the cup, and become a curse for us, with all that the wrath lying on us involved… In the plain sense of simple Christians convinced of sin, they know that He took on Him what lay on them; and Psalm 88 authorises the word wrath itself.
Commentators differ here. Many hear the Lord Jesus in these words. One writer sets this verse beside Joseph's empty pit and Abraham's raised knife:
Hamilton SmithJoseph takes up the story of the cross again, as his brothers throw him into the pit. But for him "the pit was empty; there was no water in it." How different the cross of Christ is. At this same God's bidding "Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son." Now that same God can say, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me." Twelve legions of angels await His commands, yet He tells not one of them to hold back the sword of judgment. It is no empty pit into which He must go.
Others read it as what a godly sufferer truly feels, not a true account of his case. The words fit Christ alone in their full force:
L M GrantThough he feels God's wrath lying heavily upon him, again it is not true that God has afflicted him with all His waves. For only One could rightly say, "all your breakers and your waves have gone over me." This refers to God's judgment of Christ at Calvary for our sins.
Who is this sufferer speaking to? The same God whose wrath he feels.
J. N. Darby"O LORD, God of my salvation" governs the psalm… The great point pressing on the spirit was death, and death carrying the witness of God's wrath on it. Knowing that the God who had revealed Himself in promise was the only Saviour turns the heart to this… Once God is brought in, and faith in Him, far enough to own that everything depended on Him, the soul feels His wrath in it all. And this is true. This is death seen in its truth.
The same writer explains why such a soul is not left there:
J. N. DarbyThe wrath will not stay on them, because Christ has drunk the true cup of it. But they must come to understand it.
- Source. This verse traces the weight to God's own hand, not to enemies or circumstances. The dealing is wholly between the soul and God.
- Depth. The verse stacks two images, pressing weight and breaking waves. No single picture can carry what it means for God to be against us.
- Word. This verse backs the plain word "wrath" for what Christ bore — a word the writers refused to drop.
- Substitute. For Him the pit was not empty, and God held back no sword. Commentators differ on whether the psalmist speaks Christ's own words or only feels what Christ alone endured.
- Outcome. The sufferer feels wrath here, but it will not stay, because Christ drank the true cup — and still he prays to the God of his salvation.