Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 88:5

"Cast off among the dead, Like the slain that lie in the grave, Whom thou rememberest no more, And they are cut off from thy hand." — Psalms 88:5 (ASV)

Free among the dead—Luther renders this, “I lie forgotten among the dead.” DeWette renders it, “Pertaining to the dead—(den Todten angehorend)—stricken down, like the slain, I lie in the grave,” and explains it as meaning, “I am as good as dead.” The word rendered “free”—חפשׁי (chophshı̂y)—means properly, according to Gesenius (Lexicon):

1. Prostrate, weak, feeble;
2. Free, as opposed to a slave or a captive;
3. Free from public taxes or burdens.

The word is translated “free” in Exodus 21:2, Exodus 21:5, Exodus 21:26–27; Deuteronomy 15:12–13, Deuteronomy 15:18; 1 Samuel 17:25; Job 3:19; Job 39:5; Isaiah 58:6; Jeremiah 34:9–11, Jeremiah 34:14; and “at liberty” in Jeremiah 34:16. It occurs nowhere else except in this verse.

In all these places (except in 1 Samuel 17:25, where it refers to a house or family made free, and Job 39:5, where it refers to the freedom of the wild ass), it denotes the freedom of one who had been a servant or slave. In Job 3:19, it refers to the grave and to the fact that the grave delivers a slave or servant from obligation to his master: And the servant is free from his master. This is the idea, I understand, here.

It is not, as DeWette supposes, that he was weak and feeble, as the spirits of the departed are represented to be (compare the notes at Isaiah 14:9-11). Instead, the idea is that the dead are made free from the burdens, the toils, the calamities, and the servitudes of life. They are like those who are emancipated from bondage (Job 14:6). Death comes to discharge them, or to set them at liberty. So the psalmist applies the expression here to himself. It is as if he had already reached that point; as if it were so certain that he must die that he could speak of it as if it had already occurred; as if he were actually in the condition of the dead. The idea is that he was, to all appearance, near the grave, and that there was no hope of his recovery.

It is not here, however, the idea of release or emancipation that was mainly before his mind, nor any idea of consolation from that. Instead, it is the idea of death—of hopeless disease that must end in death. He expresses this in the usual language, but it is evident that he did not admit any comfort into his mind from the idea of freedom in the grave.

Like the slain that lie in the grave—When slain in battle. They are free from the perils and the toils of life; they are emancipated from its cares and dangers. Death is freedom; and it is possible to derive solace from that idea of death, as Job did (Job 3:19). But the psalmist here, as remarked above, did not admit that idea into his mind so as to be comforted by it.

Whom thou rememberest no more—As if they were forgotten by you; as if they were no longer the object of your care. They are suffered to lie and waste away, with no care on your part to restore them to life or to preserve them from offensiveness and decay. So the great, the beautiful, and the good lie neglected in the grave.

And they are cut off from thy hand—Margin, “by.” The Hebrew is literally “from your hand,” but still the idea is that it was by the agency of God. They had been cut down and were forgotten—as if God regarded them no more. So we shall all decay in the grave—in that deep, dark, cold, silent, repulsive abode—as if even God had forgotten us.