The pains of the grave surrounded me. the snares of death met me.
The thought of the previous verse is deepened. David felt himself to be at the boundary of death. The “snares” show an unexpected and treacherous danger, and the “pains” a sense of helplessness. He does not present his deliverance as an easy victory. The more serious the danger, the greater the Lord’s salvation appears. In the believer’s life as well, there can be situations where every way out seems closed. That experience can strip away our self-sufficiency. A person understands that he does not control life and death. Yet the course of the psalm shows that precisely at that boundary David found God as Deliverer. The fullness of Christian hope is seen most clearly in the resurrection of Christ, by which death does not have the final word. Thus the verse, while speaking of David’s real danger, also directs the believer’s gaze to the Lord of life, who has authority over death.