I say, “My God, do not take me away in the middle of my days, Your years are throughout all generations.
Parallel translations
- WEB I said, “My God, don’t take me away in the middle of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.
- KJV I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout all generations.
- BSB I say: “O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days! Your years go on through all generations.
- NKJV I said, “O my God, Do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years are throughout all generations.
- NLT But I cried to him, “O my God, who lives forever, don’t take my life while I am so young!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He prays not to be taken away in midlife, appealing to God whose years span all generations. He pleads on the basis of God's eternity.
Overview
The psalmist asks for more time, contrasting his short life with God's everlasting years. His hope rests not in himself but in the eternal God. This turn toward God's permanence leads into one of Scripture's great affirmations of God's unchanging nature.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Hab 1:12Aren’t you from everlasting, Yahweh my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Yahweh, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish.
- Ps 39:13Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away, and exist no more.”
- Rev 1:8“I am the Alpha and the Omega, ” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
- Ps 102:12But you, Yahweh, will remain forever; your renown endures to all generations.
- Isa 38:10–22I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”
- Ps 9:7But Yahweh reigns forever. He has prepared his throne for judgment.
- Ps 90:1–2A Prayer by Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations.
- Job 36:26Behold, God is great, and we don’t know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.
- Rev 1:4John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne;
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 102:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.