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.
- KJV For I am poor and needy, and 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.
- 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 86:1A Prayer by David. Hear, Yahweh, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
- Ps 102:4My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.
- Ps 40:17But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.
- 2 Kgs 4:27When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, “Leave her alone; for her soul is troubled within her; and Yahweh has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”
- Ps 22:6But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
- John 12:27“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But for this cause I came to this time.
- 2 Cor 8:9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.
- Matt 8:20Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
- Ps 88:15–16I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
- Isa 53:3He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
- Ps 102:17–20He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.
- Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
- Luke 22:44Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
- Ps 109:16because he didn’t remember to show kindness, but persecuted the poor and needy man, the broken in heart, to kill them.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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.