I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
Parallel translations
- WEB I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.
- KJV I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
- NKJV I spread out my hands to You; My soul longs for You like a thirsty land. Selah
- NASB I spread out my hands to You; My soul longs for You, like a weary land. Selah
- NLT I lift my hands to you in prayer. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain. Interlude
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 spreads out his hands and thirsts for God like a parched land. It expresses intense longing and dependence on God.
Overview
With outstretched hands, the posture of prayer, David likens his soul's thirst for God to dry, cracked ground craving rain. This deep spiritual hunger is the mark of a heart set on God. Jesus offers living water to such thirsty souls, satisfying them with Himself (John 7:37-38; Psalm 42:1-2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Job 11:13As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
- Ps 63:1A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
- Ps 88:9My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O LORD; I spread out my hands to You.
- Ps 84:2My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
- Ps 42:1–2For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God.
- Ps 44:20If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
- Isa 26:8–9Yes, we wait for You, O LORD; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.
- Isa 35:7The parched ground will become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water. In the haunt where jackals once lay, there will be grass and reeds and papyrus.
- John 7:37On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
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 143:6 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.