Psalm 102:9

9 I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed with weeping:

Psalm 102:9 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 102:9

For I have eaten ashes like bread
He sitting in ashes, as Job did, and rolling himself in them in the manner of mourners; and, having no other table than the ground to eat his food upon, he might eat ashes along with it; and by an hypallage of the words, the sense may be, that he ate bread like ashes, no more savoured and relished it, or was nourished by it, than if he had eaten ashes; the meaning is, that he was fed with the bread of adversity, and water of affliction:

and mingled my drink with weeping;
that is, with tears; as he drank, the tears ran down his cheeks, and mixed with the liquor in his cup; he was fed with the bread of tears, and had them to drink in great measure; these were his meat and his drink, day and night, while enemies reproached him, swore at him, against him, and by him; see ( Psalms 80:5 ) ( 42:3 ) .

Psalm 102:9 In-Context

7 I keep watch like a bird by itself on the house-top.

8 My haters say evil of me all day; those who are violent against me make use of my name as a curse.

9 I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed with weeping:

10 Because of your passion and your wrath, for I have been lifted up and then made low by you.

11 My days are like a shade which is stretched out; I am dry like the grass.