Lord, why do You cast off my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
- KJV LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
- BSB Why, O LORD, do You reject me? 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 13:24Why hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy?
- Ps 13:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
- Ps 43:2For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- Ps 44:24Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
- Matt 27:46About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
- Ps 77:7–9“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?
- Ps 69:17Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!
- Ps 44:9But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out 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.