I lie awake; I am like a lone bird on a housetop.
Parallel translations
- WEB I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.
- KJV I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
- NKJV I lie awake, And am like a sparrow alone on the housetop.
- NASB I lie awake, I have become like a solitary bird on a housetop.
- NLT I lie awake, lonely as a solitary bird on the roof.
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 lies awake, like a solitary sparrow on a rooftop. Sleepless and alone, he bears his grief.
Overview
The image of a lone sparrow on a housetop captures the psalmist's sleepless, friendless suffering. Isolation deepens the pain of affliction. Yet even in such solitude, he continues to pour out his heart to the God who never abandons His own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 77:4You have kept my eyes from closing; I am too troubled to speak.
- Lam 3:28–30Let him sit alone in silence, for God has disciplined him.
- Mark 14:33–37He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed.
- Ps 38:11My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.
- Deut 28:66–67So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival.
- Ps 130:6My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning—more than watchmen wait for the morning.
- Ps 22:2I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.
- Job 7:13–16When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 102:7 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.