Psalm 25:17

The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) The troubles.—The consensus of commentators is for a different division of the Hebrew words.

. . . “Relieve my sore heart,

And release me from my distress.”

Benson Commentary

Psalm 25:17-20. The troubles of my heart are enlarged — My outward troubles are accompanied with grievous distresses of my mind and heart for my sins, which have procured them, and for thy great displeasure manifested in them. Look upon mine affliction — With compassion, as Exodus 3:7-8; Psalm 31:7; Psalm 106:44. And forgive all my sins — The procuring and continuing causes of my trouble. “David joins this petition to the foregoing one, because he considered, whatever afflictions and crosses were brought upon him, how just soever they might be, with respect to his enemies, who were the apparent causes of them; yet that, according to God’s appointment, or permission, they might be the effects and punishment of his sins.” — Dodd. O keep my soul — Myself, or my life, as that word is commonly taken: for his soul was out of his enemies’ reach, who could only kill his body, Luke 12:4.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:15-22 The psalmist concludes, as he began, with expressing dependence upon God, and desire toward him. It is good thus to hope, and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord. And if God turns to us, no matter who turns from us. He pleads his own integrity. Though guilty before God, yet, as to his enemies, he had the testimony of conscience that he had done them no wrong. God would, at length, give Israel rest from all their enemies round about. In heaven, God's Israel will be perfectly redeemed from all troubles. Blessed Saviour, thou hast graciously taught us that without thee we can do nothing. Do thou teach us how to pray, how to appear before thee in the way which thou shalt choose, and how to lift up our whole hearts and desires after thee, for thou art the Lord our righteousness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The troubles of my heart - The sorrows which spring upon the heart - particularly from the recollections of sin.

Are enlarged - Have become great. They increased the more he reflected on the sins of his life.

O bring thou me out of my distresses - Alike from my sins, and from the dangers which surround me. These two things, external trouble and the inward consciousness of guilt, are not infrequently combined. Outward trouble has a tendency to bring up the remembrance of past transgressions, and to suggest the inquiry whether the affliction is not a divine visitation for sin. Any one source of sorrow may draw along numerous others in its train. The laws of association are such that when the mind rests on one source of joy, and is made cheerful by that, numerous other blessings will be suggested to increase the joy; and when one great sorrow has taken possession of the soul, all the lesser sorrows of the past life cluster around it, so that we seem to ourselves to be wholly abandoned by God and by man.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16-19. A series of earnest appeals for aid because God had seemed to desert him (compare Ps 13:1; 17:13, &c.), his sins oppressed him, his enemies had enlarged his troubles and were multiplied, increasing in hate and violence (Ps 9:8; 18:48).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The troubles of my heart; my outward troubles are accompanied with grievous torments of my mind and heart for my sins, which have procured them, and thy great displeasure manifested in them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The troubles of my heart are enlarged,.... His enemies being increased, which troubled him; the floods of ungodly men made him afraid; the waters of affliction were come into his soul, and spread themselves, and threatened to overwhelm him: or it may be rendered, as by some, "troubles have enlarged my heart" (h); made him wiser, increased his knowledge and experience; see Psalm 119:67; but the former seems better to agree with what follows;

O bring thou me out of my distresses; or "straits" (i); for the enlargement of his troubles was the straitening of his heart; and therefore he applies to the Lord to bring him out of his afflicted circumstances, in which he was penned up, as in a strait place, on every side, and which were such that he could not free himself from; but he knew that God could deliver him.

(h) "dilataverunt cor meum", Vatablus; "reddiderunt cor meum latius", Gussetius, p. 786. (i) "ab angustiis meis", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius; so Musculus, Piscator, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

The troubles of my heart {n} are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.

(n) My grief is increased because of my enemies cruelty.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. The verb rendered are enlarged cannot mean ‘augmented.’ It is all but certain that the consonants should be divided and vocalised differently, giving the appropriate sense, The straitnesses of my heart enlarge thou, and bring me &c.: i.e. relieve my distress. Cp. Psalm 18:36; Psalm 119:32.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 17, 18. - The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins. The affliction, of whatever kind it may have been, was regarded by David as a punishment sent on him for his sins. Of his sins he was at this time deeply conscious (vers. 7, 11) and deeply repentant. Probably they included his great sin (see the comment on ver. 11). Psalm 25:17

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Hiph. הרחיב signifies to make broad, and as a transitive denominative applied to the mind and heart: to make a broad space equals to expand one's self (cf. as to the idea, Lamentations 2:13, "great as the sea is thy misfortune"), lxx ἐπληθύνθησαν, perhaps originally it was ἐπλατηύνθησαν. Accordingly הרחיבוּ is admissible so far as language is concerned; but since it gives only a poor antithesis to צרות it is to be suspected. The original text undoubtedly was הרחיב וממצוקותי (הרחיב, as in Psalm 77:2, or הרחיב, as e.g., in 2 Kings 8:6): the straits of my heart do Thou enlarge (cf. Psalm 119:32; 2 Corinthians 6:11) and bring me out of my distresses (Hitzig and others).