You have kept my eyes from closing; I am too troubled to speak.
Parallel translations
- WEB You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.
- KJV Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
- NKJV You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
- NASB You have held my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
- NLT You don’t let me sleep. I am too distressed even to pray!
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
God holds Asaph's eyelids open in sleepless distress, and he is too troubled to speak.
Overview
The psalmist's suffering robs him of both sleep and words. He attributes even his sleeplessness to God's hand, sensing God's involvement in his trial. This depiction of speechless anguish gives voice to the believer's darkest nights and assures that such suffering is not outside God's sovereign awareness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Job 7:13–15When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
- Ps 6:6I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
- Job 2:13Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.
- Esth 6:1That night sleep escaped the king; so he ordered the Book of Records, the Chronicles, to be brought in and read to him.
- Job 6:3For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been rash.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 77:4 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.