I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long.
- BSB I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning.
- NKJV I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
- NASB I am bent over and greatly bowed down; I go in mourning all day long.
- NLT I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief.
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 is bowed down and pained, mourning all day long. His guilt and affliction leave him in constant grief.
Overview
David portrays himself as physically stooped and emotionally crushed, going about in perpetual mourning. The weight of sin and suffering bends him low. This godly sorrow is not despair but the grief that leads to repentance and life (2 Corinthians 7:10), and it finds its comfort only in the God who lifts up the bowed down and forgives in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 30:28I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
- Ps 35:14I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.
- Ps 42:9I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- Ps 31:10For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
- Ps 145:14The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
- Ps 42:5Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
- Ps 43:2For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- Ps 57:6They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.
- Ps 88:9Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
- Ps 6:6I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
- Isa 38:14Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 38:6 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
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