Psalms 88:18

Lover and friend hast thou put far from me,.... This is mentioned in Psalms 88:8, and is here repeated; and the account is closed with it, to show that this was a most aggravating circumstance of his

Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

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Psalms 88:18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, [and] mine acquaintance into darkness.Ver. 18. Lover and friend, &c.] See Psalms 88:8, and mark how mournfully he concludeth; as doth also the Church, Lamentations 5:22.

(18) And mine acquaintance into darkness.—This is an erroneous rendering. Rather, My acquaintance is darkness, or, darkness is my friend, having taken the place of those removed. The feeling resembles Job 17:14; or we may illustrate by Tennyson’s lines:— “O sorrow, wilt thou live with me, No casual mistress, but a wife, My bosom friend, and half my life? As I confess it needs must be.”

Verse 18. Lover and friend] I have no comfort, and neither friend nor neighbour to sympathize with me. Mine acquaintance into darkness.] All have forsaken me; or מידעי מחשך meyuddai machsach, "Darkness is my companion." Perhaps he may refer to the death of his acquaintances; all were gone; there was none left to console him! That man has a dismal lot who has outlived all his old friends and acquaintances; well may such complain. In the removal of their friends they see little else than the triumphs of death. Khosroo, an eminent Persian poet, handles this painful subject with great delicacy and beauty in the following lines: - [---Persic---] Ruftem sauee khuteereh bekerestem bezar Az Hijereh Doostan ke aseer fana shudend: Guftem Eeshah Kuja shudend? ve Khatyr Dad az sada jouab Eeshan Kuja! "Weeping, I passed the place where lay my friends Captured by death; in accents wild I cried, Where are they? And stern Fate, by Echoes voice, Returned in solemn sound the sad Where are they?" J. B. C. ANALYSIS OF THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH PSALM There are four parts in this Psalm: - I. A petition, Psalms 88:1-2. II. The cause of this petition, his misery, which he describes, Psalms 88:3-9. III. The effects produced by this miserable condition: 1. A special prayer, Psalms 88:10-12; 2. An expostulation with God for deliverance, Psalms 88:10-12. IV. A grievous complaint, Psalms 88:14-18. The psalmist offers his petition; but before he begins, he lays down four arguments why it should be admitted, - 1. His confidence and reliance on God: "O Lord God of my salvation." 2. His earnestness to prevail: "I have cried." 3. His assiduity: "Day and night." 4. His sincerity: "I have cried before thee." And then he tenders his request for audience: "Let my prayer come before thee, incline thine ear unto my cry." II. And then next he sets forth the pitiful condition he was in, that hereby he might move God to take compassion, which he amplifies several ways: - 1. From the weight and variety of his troubles; many they were, and pressed him to death. "For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draweth nigh to the grave." 2. From the danger of death in which he was. Which is illustrated by three degrees: - 1. That he was moribundus, dying, no hope of life in him even by the estimate of all men: "I am counted with them that go down to the pit; I am as a man that hath no strength." 2. That he was plane mortuus, nearly dead; but as a dead man, "free among the dead;" freed from all the business of this life; as far separate from them as a dead man. 3. Yea, dead and buried: "Like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberedst no more;" i.e., to care for in this life; and "they are cut off from thy hand," i.e., thy providence, thy custody, as touching matter of this life.

18. Cp. Psalms 88:8; Psalms 38:11; Job 19:13. and mine acquaintance into darkness] A difficult phrase. Another possible rendering is, my familiar friends are darkness: darkness takes the place of friends: cp. Job 17:14. We take leave of this sad singer with his riddle unsolved, with no ray of light piercing the gloom; yet believing in the fact of God’s love though he can only see the signs of His wrath, appealing, like Job, to God, though God seems utterly hostile to him; assured that if he has any hope at all, it is in God alone. His faith has met its reward.

Lover and friend hast thou put far from me - That is, Thou hast so afflicted me that they have forsaken me.

18. Lover and friend—The removal of these may well form the climax of his misery. All lost; not even the sympathy of friendship left to alleviate the horror of his despair.