Yahweh God of Armies, How long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?
Parallel translations
- KJV O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
- BSB O LORD God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?
- NKJV O Lord God of hosts, How long will You be angry Against the prayer of Your people?
- NASB ¶Lord God of armies, How long will You be angry with the prayer of Your people?
- NLT O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, how long will you be angry with our prayers?
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
The psalmist asks how long God will remain angry even with His people's prayers. It honestly voices the anguish of seeming unanswered prayer under God's discipline.
Overview
Addressing the LORD of Armies, the psalmist feels that even Israel's prayers are met with God's smoldering anger. The lament reflects the reality of divine discipline upon a covenant people who have strayed. Such honest crying out is itself an act of faith, trusting that the God who chastens will not stay angry forever (Ps. 30:5).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 85:5Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations?
- Deut 29:20Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.
- Ps 74:1A contemplation by Asaph. God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
- Ps 59:5You, Yahweh God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah.
- Isa 58:2–3Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.
- Ps 79:5How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
- Matt 15:22–28Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!”
- Lam 3:44You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
- Isa 58:6–9“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
- Luke 18:1–8He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up,
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 80:4 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.