My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O LORD; I spread out my hands to You.
Parallel translations
- WEB My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.
- KJV Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
- NKJV My eye wastes away because of affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You.
- NASB My eye grows dim from misery; I have called upon You every day, Lord; I have spread out my hands to You.
- NLT My eyes are blinded by my tears. Each day I beg for your help, O Lord; I lift my hands to you for mercy.
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
His eyes fail from grief, yet he calls on the LORD daily and spreads out his hands in prayer. Even in despair, he keeps praying.
Overview
Worn down by sorrow, Heman nonetheless persists in daily prayer, spreading his hands toward God. This perseverance shows that faith can endure even when relief does not come. Such steadfast crying out, even from the depths, models the prayerful endurance perfected in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Job 11:13As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
- Ps 38:10My heart pounds, my strength fails, and even the light of my eyes has faded.
- Ps 86:3Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I call to You all day long.
- Ps 143:6I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
- Ps 42:3My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
- Job 16:20My friends are my scoffers as my eyes pour out tears to God.
- Ps 68:31Envoys will arrive from Egypt; Cush will stretch out her hands to God.
- Job 17:7My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
- Ezek 17:11Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
- Ps 55:17Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.
- John 11:35Jesus wept.
- Ps 44:20If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
- Ps 88:1A song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. For the choirmaster. According to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite. O LORD, the God of my salvation, day and night I cry out before You.
- Lam 3:48–49Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Ps 6:7My eyes fail from grief; they grow dim because of all my foes.
- Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears
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 88:9 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.