We can’t escape the constant humiliation; shame is written across our faces.
Parallel translations
- WEB All day long my dishonor is before me, and shame covers my face,
- KJV My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
- BSB All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face,
- NKJV My dishonor is continually before me, And the shame of my face has covered me,
- NASB All day long my dishonor is before me And I am covered with my humiliation,
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
All day the psalmist's dishonor confronts him and shame covers his face. It matters because it gives voice to the relentless inward weight of disgrace.
Overview
The lament becomes personal as the speaker describes constant, inescapable shame. The covered face is a sign of disgrace and grief. This honest expression of humiliation finds its answer in Christ, who endured shame and despised it for the joy set before Him, that His people might lift up their faces.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 69:7Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.
- Jer 51:51“We are confounded, because we have heard reproach. Confusion has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh’s house.”
- Ps 71:13Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.
- 2 Chr 32:21Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. When he had come into the house of his god, those who came out of his own bowels killed him there with the sword.
- Josh 7:7–9Joshua said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan!
- Jer 3:25Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”
- Ps 89:45You have shortened the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. Selah.
- Ezra 9:6and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.
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 44:15 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.