For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
Parallel translations
- WEB for I am poor and needy. My heart is wounded within me.
- BSB For I am poor and needy; my heart is wounded within me.
- ESV For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me.
- NKJV For I am poor and needy, And my heart is wounded within me.
- NASB For I am afflicted and needy, And my heart is wounded within me.
- NLT For I am poor and needy, and my heart is full of pain.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
David confesses that he is poor, needy, and wounded in heart. His weakness becomes the basis of his appeal to God's mercy.
Overview
David identifies himself with the very poor and broken-hearted his enemy persecuted (v. 16), casting himself on God's compassion. Scripture consistently shows that God draws near to the lowly and afflicted (Psalm 51:17). Christ likewise was 'poor' for our sake (2 Corinthians 8:9) and is near to the brokenhearted who call on Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 86:1Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy.
- Ps 102:4My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.
- Ps 40:17But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
- 2 Kgs 4:27And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.
- Ps 22:6But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
- John 12:27Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
- 2 Cor 8:9For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
- Matt 8:20And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
- Ps 88:15–16I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
- Isa 53:3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
- Ps 102:17–20He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
- Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.
- Luke 22:44And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
- Ps 109:16Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.
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 109:22 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.