Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave. Of the word “maschil,” See Gill on “Ps. 32:1,” title. This psalm is called a prayer, as some others are, the ninetieth and hundred second psalms: and was composed by David when either in the cave of Adullam, 1 Sam.

I cried unto the Lord with my voice With the voice of his soul, in the language of his mind, mentally, as Moses and Hannah cried unto the Lord when no voice was heard, or articulate sounds expressed, since this prayer was put up to the Lord in the cave where Saul was; though it might have been…

I poured out my complaint before him Not a complaint of the Lord and of his providences, but of himself; of his sins, and particularly his unbelief; and also of them that persecuted and afflicted him; which he “poured” out from the abundance of his heart, and in the bitterness of his soul; denoting…

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me Ready to sink and faint under the present affliction, being attended with the hidings of God’s face, and with unbelieving frames; which is sometimes the case of God’s people, and with which they are as it were covered and overwhelmed, as well as with a sense…

I looked on my right hand, and beheld On the left, so Kimchi supplies it, and after him Piscator; he looked about him every way to the right and left, to see if he could get any help, or find out any way of deliverance.

I cried unto thee, O Lord Finding no help from man, he turns to the Lord, and directs his prayer to him in his distress; I said, thou art my refuge; as he was, from all his enemies that were in pursuit of him, and from the storm of calamities he apprehended was coming upon him: and a refuge the…

Attend unto my cry His prayer and supplication for help in his distress, which he desires might be hearkened unto and answered; for I am brought very low; in his spirit, in the exercise of grace, being in great affliction, and reduced to the utmost extremity, weakened, impoverished, and exhausted;…

Bring my soul out of prison Not out of purgatory, to which some Popish writers wrest these words very absurdly; nor out of the prison of his body, as Joseph Ben Gorion [[14]]; knowing that none but God had a power of removing it from thence; but out of the cave, where he was detained as in a…