When the psalmist thought he was going to die—and it seemed the grave had a hold on him, he cried out to God.  He learned that God is gracious to those with great needs.  Let's cry out to Him!

Part 1

“The sorrows of death compassed me,”
As believers, we understand that the last enemy to be destroyed by God is “death,” (1 Corinthians 15:26).  Ever since the events of Adam’s Fall in the Garden of Eden, death has been plaguing mankind.  Death is the great separator, it steals away loved ones from the living, bringing sorrow to those who remain and suffering to those who are being taken by it.  The psalmist felt at times, as though he was being stalked by death.

David understood this when he exclaimed, “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid,” (Psalm 18:4).

“We may be – we probably are – mistaken in regard to the intensity of suffering as ordinarily experienced in death; but still we dread those sorrows more than we do anything else, and all that we dread may be experienced then.  Those sorrows, therefore, become the representation of the intensest forms of suffering; and such, the psalmist says, he experienced on the occasion to which he refers,”1 (Barnes).

“And the pains of hell gat hold upon me:”
He speaks of the “pains of hell” – the pain involved in dying and the body going to “Sheol,” “Hades,” or “the grave.”  As a believer in Jehovah, he is not speaking of the suffering in Hell that the lost soul will endure.  The believing soul leaves his body in death and is with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).  His body goes to the grave.

“The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me,” (Psalm 18:5).

“Gat hold” is from the Hebrew phrase that means “found me.”  The psalmist is saying that he was discovered by death as though it has been stalking, searching for him.  Every person is being followed by death, and someday each one will be caught by him.  Death is universal.  Every soul needs to be prepared for that meeting when death comes for him.

Will you be ready?

Come back tomorrow to see the outcome of the psalmist’s cry for help.

1.  Albert Barnes, Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, the electronic version in eSword.