John Calvin Commentary Psalms 88:6

"Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, In dark places, in the deeps." — Psalms 88:6 (ASV)

Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit. The Psalmist now acknowledges more distinctly that whatever adversities he endured proceeded from the Divine hand. Indeed, no one will sincerely turn to God to seek relief without a previous conviction that it is the Divine hand which strikes him, and that nothing happens by chance. It is observable that the nearer the prophet approaches God, the more his grief is embittered, for nothing is more dreadful to the saints than the judgment of God.

Some translate the first clause of the seventh verse, Thy indignation hath approached upon me; and the Hebrew word סמך, samach, is sometimes to be taken in this sense. But from the context of the passage, it must necessarily be understood here, as in many other places, in the sense of to surround, or to lie heavy upon. For when the subject being discussed is a man sunk into a threefold grave, it would be too weak to speak of the wrath of God as merely approaching him.

The translation I have adopted is particularly suitable to the overall meaning of the text. It views the prophet as declaring that he sustained the whole burden of God’s wrath, seeing he was afflicted with His waves. Furthermore, as so dreadful a flood did not prevent him from lifting up his heart and prayers to God, we may learn from his example to cast the anchor of our faith and prayers directly into heaven in all the perils of shipwreck to which we may be exposed.