Psalms 38:10

10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of my eyes, that also is gone from me.

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 feeble and grievously broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desire [is] before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of my eyes, that also is gone from me.
11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my affliction; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
12 They also that seek after my life lay snares [for me]: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
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