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.
- KJV I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
- BSB I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning.
- 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 go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
- Ps 35:14I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
- Ps 42:9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
- Ps 31:10For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.
- Ps 145:14Yahweh upholds all who fall, and raises up all those who are bowed down.
- Ps 42:5Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
- Ps 43:2For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- Ps 57:6They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They dig a pit before me. They fall into the middle of it themselves. Selah.
- Ps 88:9My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.
- Ps 6:6I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.
- Isa 38:14I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
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
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.