The phrase concentrates our attention upon the psalmist and the experiences through which he passed in arriving at the solution of the problem of the psalm: Why do bad men prosper, and good men suffer?
Were almost gone.
A striking metaphor, meaning that the psalmist had almost lost his faith (see Ps. 44:18).
Well nigh slipped.
See Ps. 17:5. The psalmist had been on the verge of slipping from the rock of faith into the pit of skepticism.