John Gill Commentary Psalms 88:6

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

You have laid me in the lowest pit
The Targum interprets it of captivity which was like to the lowest pit;'' and so Jarchi and Kimchi. Some understand it of a prison or dungeon, into which the psalmist was put; it may be interpreted of the pit of the grave, into which Christ was laid; though he continued in it not so long as to see corruption; from that prison and judgment he was quickly taken, (Psalms 16:10) (Isaiah 53:8) .

In darkness; both corporeal and spiritual, (Matthew 27:45Matthew 27:46) , and it is in the Hebrew text "in darknesses" ^F11 , denoting both: in the deeps; in the deep waters of affliction, sorrows, and sufferings; see (Psalms 69:1Psalms 69:2) . The allusion is to a dark and deep pit, under ground, such as in the eastern countries they used to put their captives and prisoners into at night and take them out in the morning; a custom which continues still among the Turks. Leo Africanus ^F12 says he has seen three thousand Christian captives together, clothed in a woollen sack, and chained to one another; and in the night put into pits or ditches under ground; see (Zechariah 9:11) .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F11: (Mykvxmb) "in loca tenebrosa", Tigurine version, Musculus; "in tenebrosissimis", Junius & Tremellius; "in densis tenebris", Piscator; "in caligines, vel obscuritates", Gejerus.
• F12: Descriptio Africae, l. 3. p. 413.