LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
- BSB Why, O LORD, do You reject me? Why do You hide Your face from me?
- NKJV Lord, why do You cast off my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?
- NASB Lord, why do You reject my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?
- NLT O Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you turn your face from me?
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
He asks why God rejects his soul and hides His face. He voices the painful mystery of feeling forsaken by God.
Overview
Heman's anguished 'why' expresses the experience of God's apparent rejection and hidden face. The lament gives voice to genuine spiritual desolation without resolving it. These very questions echo in Christ's cry of dereliction, 'why have you forsaken me,' through which He secured that believers will never finally be forsaken.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Job 13:24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
- Ps 13:1How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
- Ps 43:2For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- Ps 44:24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
- Matt 27:46And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
- Ps 77:7–9Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
- Ps 69:17And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
- Ps 44:9But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame; and goest not forth with our armies.
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 88:14 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.