You don’t let me sleep. I am too distressed even to pray!
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.
- BSB You have kept my eyes from closing; I am too troubled to 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.
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 say, ‘My bed shall comfort me. My couch shall ease my complaint;’
- Ps 6:6I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.
- Job 2:13So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
- Esth 6:1On that night, the king couldn’t sleep. He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king.
- Job 6:3For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash.
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 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.