O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave,.... When his life being in danger, was near unto it, Job 33:22; otherwise the soul dies not, nor does it lie and sleep in the grave; or "thou hast brought up my soul from hell" m; that is, delivered him from those horrors of conscience and terrors of mind, by reason of sin, which were as hell itself unto him; see Psalms 116:3;
thou hast kept me alive: preserved his corporeal life when in danger, and maintained his spiritual life; and quickened him by his word, under all his afflictions, and kept him from utter and black despair;
that I should not go down to the pit; either of the grave or hell. There is in this clause a "Keri" and a "Cetib"; a marginal reading, and a textual writing: according to the latter it is, "from them that go down to the pit"; which some versions n follow; that is, thou hast preserved me from going along with them, and being where and as they are: our version follows the former; the sense is the same.
m מן שאול "ab inferno", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth. n So Sept. V. L. Pagninus, Musculus, Gejerus, Michaelis, Ainsworth.