“Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.”
The final plea: "Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me." The final line repeats the experience of divine wrath as an overwhelming force. The lack of resolution—no turning point, no assurance of divine help—marks this psalm as unique in the Psalter.
Church Fathers on Psalms 88:16
1. The Title of this eighty-seventh Psalm contains a fresh subject for enquiry: the words occurring here, “for Melech to respond,” being nowhere else found. We have already given our opinion on the meaning of the titles Psalmus Cantici and Canticum Psalmi: and the words, “sons of Core,” are constantly repeated, and have often been explained: so also “to the end;” but what comes next in this title is peculiar. For “Melech” we may translate into Latin “for the chorus,” for…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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