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Psalms 86:13

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell - This must mean more than the grave; a hell below hell - a place of perdition for the soul, as the grave is a place of corruption for the body.

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

For great is thy mercy toward me - In respect to me; or, Thou hast manifested great mercy to me; to wit, in past times. He makes use of this now as an argument or reason why God should interpose again.

(a) He had shown on former occasions that he had power to save;

(b) the fact that he had thus treated him as his friend was a reason why he should now befriend him.

And thou hast delivered my soul - My life. The meaning is, that he had kept him alive in times of imminent danger. At the same time David could say, as every child of God can say, that God had delivered his soul in the strict and proper sense of the term - from sin, and death, and hell itself.

From the lowest hell - Margin, grave; Hebrew, שׁאול she'ôl Greek, ᾅδης Hadēs See the word explained in the notes at Isaiah 14:9. Compare the notes at Job 10:21-22. The word rendered “lowest” means simply under, or beneath: the grave or hades beneath. The idea of lowest, or the superlative degree, is not necessarily implied in the word. The idea of the grave as deep, or as under us, however, is implied, and the psalmist means to say that he had been saved from that deep dwelling-place - from the abode of departed spirits, to which the dead descend under ground. The meaning is, that he had been kept alive; but the greatness of the mercy is designed to be set forth by having before the mind a vivid idea of the darkness, the horror, and the gloom of the world to which the dead descend, and where they dwell.

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
Our God alone possesses almighty power and infinite love. Christ is the way and the truth. And the believing soul will be more desirous to be taught the way and the truth. And the believing soul will be more desirous to be taught the way and the truth of God, in order to walk therein, than to be delivered out of earthly distress. Those who set not the Lord before them, seek after believers' souls; but the compassion, mercy, and truth of God, will be their refuge and consolation. And those whose parents were the servants of the Lord, may urge this as a plea why he should hear and help them. In considering David's experience, and that of the believer, we must not lose sight of Him, who though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.