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Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

Psalms 88:13

But unto thee have I cried, O Lord - I have earnestly prayed; I have sought thy gracious interposition.

And in the morning - That is, each morning; every day. My first business in the morning shall be prayer.

Shall my prayer prevent thee - Anticipate thee; go before thee: that is, it shall be early; so to speak even before thou dost awake to the employments of the day. The language is that which would be applicable to a case where one made an appeal to another for aid before he had arisen from his bed, or who came to him even while he was asleep - and who thus, with an earnest petition, anticipated his rising. Compare the notes at Job 3:12; compare Psalms 21:3; Psalms 59:10; Psalms 79:8; Psalms 119:148; Matthew 17:25; 1 Thessalonians 4:15.

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See also Psalms 88:13 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Psalms 88:13. _SHALL MY PRAYER PREVENT THEE._] It shall get _before_ thee; I will not wait till the accustomed time to offer my morning sacrifice, I shall call on thee long before others come to...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    Psalms 88 The Deepest Soul Misery Poured Out _ 1. In deepest misery and distress (Psalms 88:1)_ 2. Crying and no answer (Psalms 88:8) This is a Maschil Psalm by Heman the Ezrahite. See...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    LXXXVIII. A LEPER'S PRAYER. This Ps. has striking peculiarities. The suffering here portrayed has been long and terrible. The Psalmist has been tormented by sickness from his youth (Psalms 88:15). Yah...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    PREVENT. come before....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    But as for me, unto thee, Jehovah, have I cried for help, And in the morning shall my prayer come before thee. He contrasts himself with the dead, whose covenant relation with God is at an end. He a...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    Death brings no hope. Will not God then listen to his prayer and grant him some relief in his extremity of suffering and solitude?...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    WILT THOU SHEW WONDERS TO THE DEAD— The Psalmist in this, and the following verses, exaggerates his own distress, and the seeming impossibility of relief, by representing himself as a dead man, and hi...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    PSALMS 88 DESCRIPTIVE TITLE The Anguished Cry of one Smitten and Forsaken. ANALYSIS Stanza I., Psalms 88:1-2, Urgent Prayer to be Heard. Stanzas II., III., IV., V., Psalms 88:3-4;...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. BUT - notwithstanding these considerations, which would naturally create hope of relief, I cry in vain. AND IN...

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    88:13 thee. (o-18) Lit. 'cometh to meet thee.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    PREVENT] RV 'come before....

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    This is the saddest and most despairing of all the Pss. The writer is apparently the victim of some incurable disease like leprosy, with which he has been afflicted from his youth (Psalms 88:15), and...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    Psalms 73:89 _GORDON CHURCHYARD_ DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN PSALMS 88 Jesus went into a town called Nain. Many of his *disciples and a lot of people went with him. Now when he came near to the gate...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    BUT UNTO THEE ... — Better, _But as for me, I,_ &c. The pronoun is emphatic. The speaker has _not_ gone down to the land where all is silent and forgotten, and can therefore still cry to God, and send...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    _[Psalms 88:14]_ וַ אֲנִ֤י ׀ אֵלֶ֣יךָ יְהוָ֣ה שִׁוַּ֑עְתִּי...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    Psalms 88:1 A PSALM which begins with "God of my salvation" and ends with "darkness" is an anomaly. All but unbroken gloom broods over it, and is densest at its close. The psalmist is so "weighed upon...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    A CRY FROM THE WAVES Psalms 88:1 Most of the psalms which begin in sorrow end in exuberant joy and praise. This is an exception. There seems to be no break in the monotony of grief and despair. In Ps...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This is a song sobbing with sadness form beginning to end. It seems to have no gleam of light or of hope. Commencing with an appeal to Jehovah to hear, it proceeds to describe the terrible sorrows thr...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    Sea. Hebrew, "the right," (Calmet) which here denotes the south, (Psalm cvi. 3.; Menochius) as Hermon may do the east, (Du Hamel) with reference to Thabor, which lies to the west, though this seems un...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    There is a great degree of earnestness in the sorrows, again repeated, through these verses. Jesus, from the moment of his birth to the cross, sanctified and set apart as he was, a Nazarite from the w...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    Psalms 88 puts the remnant under the deep and dreadful sense of a broken law, and God's fierce wrath, which, in justice comes upon those who have done so. It is not now outward sorrows or oppression o...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    BUT UNTO THEE HAVE I CRIED, O LORD,.... Formerly, and had been heard, answered, and relieved, and which was an encouragement to cry again to him in his distress; Christ was always heard, John 11:42, o...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. Ver. 13. _But unto thee have I cried_] Oh, condescend to thy poor crying creature in extremity. _ In the morning_...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee_ That is, shall be offered to thee early, before the ordinary time of morning prayer, or before the dawning of the day, or the rising of the sun. The sense...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    But unto Thee have I cried, O Lord, deliberately shaking off the thoughts of despair which threatened to overwhelm his trust in Jehovah; AND IN THE MORNING SHALL MY PRAYER PREVENT THEE, going forth to...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    A LAMENT IN THE MIDST OF SUFFERING AND TRIBULATION. A song or psalm for the sons of Korah, written by a member of this illustrious family of musicians, to the chief musician upon Mahalath Leannoth, fo...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    10-18 Departed souls may declare God's faithfulness, justice, and lovingkindness; but deceased bodies can neither receive God's favours in comfort, nor return them in praise. The psalmist resolved to...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    i.e. Early, come to thee, before the ordinary time of morning prayer, or before the dawning of the day, or the rising of the sun. The sense is, Though I have hitherto got no answer to my prayers, yet...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Psalms 88:13 out H7768 (H8765) LORD H3068 morning H1242 prayer H8605 comes H6923 (H8762) and in -...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    A Song or Psalm for the sons of Korah, to the chief Musician upon Mahaloth Leannoth, Maschil of Heman the Ezrahite. I think that this is the darkest of all the Psalms; it has hardly a spot of light in...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Lamentation over trouble and pleading with God for mercy. CHARACTERS: God, Psalmist. CONCLUSION: Sometimes the best of God's saints are severely exercised with the sorest of inward troubles...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Dr. Lightfoot affirms that this, and the eighty ninth psalm, were written by Heman and Ethan, sons of Zerah, or the Ezrahites mentioned in 1 Chronicles 2:6. Consequently, they lived about the time whe...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _In the morning shall my prayer prevent Thee._ MORNING DEVOTION As the Oriental traveller sets out for the sultry journey over burning sands by loading up his camel under the palm-trees’ shade, and f...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee._ A PORTRAIT OF A SUFFERING MAN I. Depicting his wretched state. He speaks of himself as “full of troubles,” satiated with sufferi...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    PSALM PSALM—NOTE ON PSALMS 88:1. This is an individual lament. It is suited for a person who is so overwhelmed with troubles that even his friends shun him, and who suspects that the Lord has shunned...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    PSALM—NOTE ON PSALMS 88:13 DARKNESS is the last word in the psalm. Yet the faithful know that there is no alternative but to keep seeking the Lord in prayer....

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    INTRODUCTION _Superscription.—“A Song or Psalm,” i.e._, combining the properties of both a Psalm and a song. _“For the sons of Korah_,” see Introduction to Psalms 42. “The expression, ‘To the Chief Mu...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION THE most mournful of all the psalms. After one almost formal "word of trust" (_Psalms 88:1_), the remainder is a continuous bitter cry of complaint, rising at times into expostulation (Psal...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Psa 88:1-18 is just a sad psalm, all the way through. There just seems to be no hope; it's just miserable. When you really are feeling lower than low, and you think there is absolutely no way out, the...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Mark 1:35; Psalms 119:147; Psalms 119:148; Psalms 21:3; Psalms 5:3...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Prevent — Come to thee before the dawning of the day, or the rising of the sun....

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