My soul is weary with sorrow: strengthen me according to your word.
Parallel translations
- KJV My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
- BSB My soul melts with sorrow; strengthen me according to Your word.
- NKJV My soul melts from heaviness; Strengthen me according to Your word.
- NASB My soul weeps because of grief; Strengthen me according to Your word.
- NLT I weep with sorrow; encourage me by your word.
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
The psalmist's soul melts with sorrow, and he prays to be strengthened by God's word. It matters because Scripture upholds the weary and grieving heart.
Overview
Weighed down by grief until his soul seems to dissolve, the psalmist seeks strength according to God's word. He looks to God's promises, not himself, for endurance. This dependence is met in Christ, who gives rest to the weary and whose word strengthens the faint.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
- 1 Pet 5:10But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
- Ps 27:14Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.
- Ps 22:14I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
- Zech 10:12I will strengthen them in Yahweh; and they will walk up and down in his name,” says Yahweh.
- Isa 40:29He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.
- Ps 107:26They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.
- Ps 29:11Yahweh will give strength to his people. Yahweh will bless his people with peace.
- Eph 3:16that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;
- Isa 40:31But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
- Josh 2:24They said to Joshua, “Truly Yahweh has delivered all the land into our hands. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt away before us.”
- Josh 2:11As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.
- Ps 20:2send you help from the sanctuary, grant you support from Zion,
- Deut 33:25Your bars will be iron and brass. As your days, so your strength will be.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 119:28 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.