Psalm 116 (3 of 19 notes)

3. The psalmist now goes on to describe his condition at the time when he prayed unto God. The sorrows of death compassed me. As hunters surround a stag with dogs and men, so was David enclosed in a ring of deadly griefs. The bands of sorrow, weakness, and terror with which death is accustomed to bind men ere he drags them away to their long captivity were all around him. These things had come close to home, for he adds, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me. Horrors such as those which torment the lost seized me. He means those pangs which belong to death. I found trouble and sorrow. Trouble was around me, and sorrow within me.