Psalms 116:3,4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The sorrows of death compassed me Dangerous and deadly calamities as bitter as death: Hebrew, חבלי מות, cheblee maveth, the cords, or bands of death: see note on Psalms 18:4-5. The pains of hell Or of the grave, or of death; either cutting, killing pains, or such agonies and horrors as dying persons often feel within themselves; gat hold upon me Hebrew, מצאוני, found me, that is, surprised me. Having been long pursuing me, at last they overtook and seized upon me, and I gave up myself for lost. Then called I upon the name of the Lord Being brought to the last extremity, I made use of this, not as the last remedy, but as the old and only remedy which I had found, a balm for every wound.