Unless the LORDhad been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
Psalm 94 belongs among the writings associated with the Babylonian captivity, expressing the captives' sorrow, desolation, longing, and prayer for deliverance. The verse means that the Lord was the help of David the psalmist speaker, and without that help he would nearly have died or perished. The word soul means the person himself. Silence denotes death as a silent state that the dying nearly enter. The soul is subject to death, for the dead do not praise or remember God, and praise resumes at the resurrection.
Psalm 94 belongs among the writings associated with the Babylonian captivity, expressing the captives' sorrow, desolation, longing, and prayer for deliverance. The verse means that the Lord was the help of David the psalmist speaker, and without that help he would nearly have died or perished. The word soul means the person himself. Silence denotes death as a silent state that the dying nearly enter. The soul is subject to death, for the dead do not praise or remember God, and praise resumes at the resurrection.