Psalms 88:17

For this purpose he briefly sketches in what follows the troubles of Christ's body. For it is not in the Head alone that they took place, since it is said to Saul too, "Why do you persecute Me?" [Acts 9:4] and Paul himself, as if placed as an elect member in the same body, says, "That I may fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh." [Colossians 1:24] "Why then, Lord, have You cast off my soul? Why hidest Thou Your face from me?" "I am poor, and in toils from my youth up: and when lifted up, I was thrown down, and troubled" [Psalm 88:15]. "Your wraths went over me: Your terrors disturbed me" [Psalm 88:16]. "They came round about me all day like water: they compassed me about together" [Psalm 88:17]. "A friend You have put far from me: and mine acquaintance from my misery" [Psalm 88:18]. All these evils have taken place, and are happening in the limbs of Christ's body, and God turns away His face from their prayers, by not hearing as to what they wish for, since they know not that the fulfilment of their wishes would not be good for them. The Church is "poor," as she hungers and thirsts in her wanderings for that food with which she shall be filled in her own country: she is "in toils from her youth up," as the very Body of Christ says in another Psalm, "Many a time have they overcome me from my youth." And for this reason some of her members are lifted up even in this world, that in them may be the greater lowliness. […]

They came round about me daily like water,.... That is, the terrors of the Lord, the sorrows of death and hell, Psa 18:4, this was the Messiah's case, when it was with him as is expressed Psa 69:1, they compassed me about together; as waters coming from many places, from all quarters, meet together, and together surround a person or place in such circumstances was Christ, when the bulls of Bashan beset him around, and the assembly of the wicked enclosed him, and innumerable evils encompassed him about, Psa 22:12.

They came round about me daily like water. My troubles, and thy chastisement poured in upon me, penetrating everywhere, and drowning all. Such is the permeating and pervading power of spiritual distress, there is no shutting it out; it soaks into the soul like the dew into Gideon's fleece; it sucks the spirit down as the quicksand swallows the ship; it overwhelms it as the deluge submerged the green earth. They compassed me about together. Griefs hemmed him in. He was like the deer in the hunt, when the dogs are all around and at his throat. Poor soul!

They came round about me daily like water - Besides his spiritual conflicts, he had many enemies to grapple with. The waves of God’s displeasure broke over him, and his enemies came around him like water, increasing more and more, rising higher and higher, till he was at last on the point of being submerged in the flood.

They came round about me daily like water - Margin, “as in” Hebrew, all the day. That is, his troubles seemed to be like the waves of the sea cohnstantly breaking on the shore. See Psa 42:7. They compassed me about together - My troubles did not come singly, so that I could meet them one at a time, but they seemed to have banded themselves together; they all came upon me at once.