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John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 116 Theodoret applies this psalm to the distresses of the Jews in the times of the Maccabees under Antiochus Epiphanes; and R. Obadiah interprets some passages in it of the Grecians of those times; but it rather seems to have been written by David on account of some troubles of his, out of which he was delivered; and refers either to the times of Saul, and the persecutions...
John Gill
The sorrows of death compassed me,.... Christ, of whom David was a type, was a man of sorrows all his days; and in the garden he was surrounded with sorrow; exceeding sorrowful even unto death, in a view of the sins of his people imputed to him, and under a sense of wrath for them, he was about to bear; and his agonies in the article of death were very grievous, he died the painful and accursed...
Matthew Henry
This is a thanksgiving psalm; it is not certain whether David penned it upon any particular occasion or upon a general review of the many gracious deliverances God had wrought for him, out of six troubles and seven, which deliverances draw from him many very lively expressions of devotion, love, and gratitude; and with similar pious affections our souls should be lifted up to God in singing it....
Charles H. Spurgeon
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. He felt as if he had been hunted. As in hunting, they sometimes surround the stag with dogs as with a cordon, so he says, “the sorrows of death compassed me. There was no getting away. I was in a circle of sorrow.”...
Charles H. Spurgeon
The sorrows of death compassed me, They were all round me. They made a circle. I could not find a break. They compassed me. Sorrows, deadly sorrows, the very sorrows of death. Psa_116:3. And the pains of hell gat hold upon me: They came inside the circle and they gripped me. I was like one that did lie under the lion. He seemed to bite and tear me. “The pains of hell gat hold upon me.” Did you...
Charles H. Spurgeon
The sorrows of death compassed me,— Just as the dogs surround the poor stag, and shut him in the fatal circle. Psa_116:3. And the pains of hell gat hold upon me:— They set their teeth into him as the dogs do into the stag. Psa_116:3. I found trouble and sorrow. He was in a double grief; he had trouble without and sorrow within, it was troubled sorrow and sorrowful trouble, wormwood mingled with...
Charles H. Spurgeon
The sorrows of death compassed me, — “I seemed to be shut in, — surrounded by a circle of difficulties and terrors: ‘The sorrows of death compassed me,’” — Psa_116:3. And the pains of hell gat hold upon me: They seemed to seize him as a lion seizes his prey.
Charles H. Spurgeon
I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. His prayer was a very short one, but very much to the point. Words make not prayer; they often burden it, and prevent it from flying. “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire;” —and David, in a few earnest words, expressed that desire: “O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
The sorrows of death compassed me, “They formed a ring around me, from which I could see no way of escape. I was like a wounded stag that is surrounded by fierce dogs.” Psa_116:3. And the pains of hell gat hold upon me: “The dogs of hell had fixed their cruel teeth in my throat so that it seemed impossible for me to escape from them.” Psa_116:3. I found trouble and sorrow. “When I searched for...
Charles H. Spurgeon
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. His petition was short, earnest, plain, and personal. It was a sharp arrow shot from the bow of prayer, and it reached its mark in the heart of God. Are any of you just now in very sore distress? Then let each one...
Charles H. Spurgeon
The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; Dark days are good days for praying; when your eyes cannot see, you pray all the better; when there is no earthly prop to lean upon you are all the more ready to lean upon God alone. The psalmist was like a poor worm in a ring of fire: “the sorrows of...