Psalms 38:10

10 My heart races, my strength leaves me, and even the light of my eyes has faded.[a]

Psalms 38:10 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 38:10

My heart panteth
Or "goes about" F13; runs here and there, and finds no rest; as Aben Ezra interprets the word from the Targum he cites; though the Targum we have renders it, "my heart shakes with fear", or dread, as persons in a fever. Jarchi interprets the word, surrounded with grief; it denotes the panting or palpitation of the heart, through sorrow and dread, and the failing of it, even as at death;

my strength faileth me,
or "forsakes me" F14; bodily strength and spiritual strength; the strength of faith, hope, and confidence;

as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me;
which is often the case of persons under bodily disorders, their eyes grow dim, and sight fails them; and this might be true in a spiritual sense of the psalmist, who had lost sight of God as his covenant God; of his interest in his love, in the blessings of his grace, and in eternal salvation, and was walking in darkness, and saw no light.


FOOTNOTES:

F13 (rxrxo) "circuivit", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus.
F14 (ynbze) "dereliquit me", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Musculus, Cocceius.

Psalms 38:10 In-Context

8 I am faint and severely crushed; I groan because of the anguish of my heart.
9 Lord, my every desire is known to You; my sighing is not hidden from You.
10 My heart races, my strength leaves me, and even the light of my eyes has faded.
11 My loved ones and friends stand back from my affliction, and my relatives stand at a distance.
12 Those who seek my life set traps, and those who want to harm me threaten to destroy me; they plot treachery all day long.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or and the light of my eyes-even that is not with me
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