Psalm 102:4

4 Wie Kraut ist versengt und verdorrt mein Herz, daß ich vergessen habe, mein Brot zu essen.

Psalm 102:4 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 102:4

My heart is smitten, and withered like grass
Like grass in the summer solstice ^F4, which being smitten with the heat of the sun, or by some blast of thunder and lightning, is dried up, and withers away; so his heart was smitten with a sense of sin, and of God's wrath and displeasure at him, and with the heat of affliction and trouble, that it failed him, and he could not look up with joy and comfort:

so that I forget to eat my bread;
sometimes, through grief and trouble, persons refuse to eat bread, as Jonathan and Ahab, which is a voluntary act, and purposely done; but here, in the psalmist, there was such a loss of appetite, through sorrow, that he forgot his stated meals, having no manner of inclination to food: some understand this of spiritual food, the bread of life, refusing to be comforted with it; so the Targum,

``for I forgot the law of my doctrine.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 "Quasi solstitialis herba paulisper fui", Plauti Pseudolus, Act. 1. Sc. 1. v. 36.

Psalm 102:4 In-Context

2 Verbirg dein Angesicht nicht vor mir am Tage meiner Bedrängnis; neige zu mir dein Ohr; an dem Tage, da ich rufe, erhöre mich eilends!

3 Denn wie Rauch entschwinden meine Tage, und meine Gebeine glühen wie ein Brand.

4 Wie Kraut ist versengt und verdorrt mein Herz, daß ich vergessen habe, mein Brot zu essen.

5 Ob der Stimme meines Seufzens klebt mein Gebein an meinem Fleische.

6 Ich gleiche dem Pelikan der Wüste, bin wie die Eule der Einöden.