Unless the Lord had been my help - At the time referred to. If I had not had a God to whom I could have gone - if my mind had not been directed to him - if I had not actually found him a refuge and strength, I should have despaired altogether. There was no other one to whom I could go; there was nothing else but the help of God on which I could rely.
My soul had almost dwelt in silence - Margin, quickly. The original is, "It was as it were but little;" that is, there was little lacking to bring this about; a little heavier pressure - a little added to what I was then suffering - a little longer time before relief was obtained - would have brought me down to the land of silence - to the grave. The Latin Vulgate renders this, "My soul had dwelt in inpherno." The Septuagint, "in Hades" - τᾤ ἅδῃ tō Hadē. See Psalm 31:17. The grave is represented as a place of silence, or as the land of silence: Psalm 115:17 : "The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." Compare Amos 8:3.

Unless the Lord had been my help - Had not God in a strange manner supported us while under his chastising hand, we had been utterly cut off.
My soul had almost dwelt in silence - The Vulgate has in inferno, in hell or the infernal world; the Septuagint, τῳ ᾁδῃ, in the invisible world.

Unless the LORD [had been] my (k) help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
(k) He complains of them who would not help him to resist the enemies, yet was assured that God's help would not fail.

Unless the Lord had been my help,.... Against her enemies, which were so many and mighty, and her friends so few and feeble, and having no heart to defend her cause; especially this will be the case at the time of the slaying of the witnesses; but the Lord will appear, and help her; the Spirit of life, from him, shall enter into them, and cause them to live again, and to ascend up to heaven; and shall destroy great numbers of their enemies, and the rest shall be frightened, and give glory to God, Revelation 11:11,
my soul had almost dwelt in silence; or "within a little", or "must quickly" (e); not only have been, but must have dwelt, continued in silence, in the grave; see Psalm 115:17 his case being desperate, like that of the apostles, when they had the sentence of death within themselves, 2-Corinthians 1:10, this is to be understood not of the soul precisely, and abstractly considered, which dies not, nor is it silent after death; but of the whole person, being a part for the whole; and of the person, with respect to the mortal part, the body, which only dies, and while in a state of separation, or in the grave, is silent, and ceases from all operations of life: perhaps this may have some respect to the silencing of the witnesses, which is a principal thing meant by the slaying of them; a stop put to their ministrations, partly by the edicts of their enemies, and partly by the discouragement of their friends, their shyness, and negligence of them; and which silence will be almost total, if not altogether; though it will last but for a short time; they shall not dwell or continue in silence, but will open their mouths again; signified by the angel flying through the midst of heaven, with the everlasting Gospel, Revelation 14:6.
(e) "quasi parum", Montanus, Gejerus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

a fact fully confirmed by his past experience.
dwelt in silence--as in the grave (Psalm 31:17).

Dwelt - In the place of silence, the grave.