You have shortened the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah
Parallel translations
- WEB You have shortened the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. Selah.
- KJV The days of his youth hast thou shortened: thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
- BSB You have cut short the days of his youth; You have covered him with shame. Selah
- NKJV The days of his youth You have shortened; You have covered him with shame. Selah
- NLT You have made him old before his time and publicly disgraced him. Interlude
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 has cut short the king's vigor and covered him with shame.
Overview
The king's days of youthful strength are shortened, and he is wrapped in disgrace. The "Selah" pauses on this depth of humiliation. Such shame borne by God's anointed points toward the suffering Messiah who bore our shame before His exaltation (Heb. 12:2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 109:29Let my adversaries be clothed with dishonor. Let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.
- Ps 44:15All day long my dishonor is before me, and shame covers my face,
- Ps 102:23He weakened my strength along the course. He shortened my days.
- Mic 7:10Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, where is Yahweh your God? Then my enemy will see me and will cover her shame. Now she will be trodden down like the mire of the streets.
- Isa 63:18Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
- 2 Chr 10:19So Israel rebelled against David’s house to this day.
- Ps 71:13Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.
- Ps 89:28–29I will keep my loving kindness for him forever more. My covenant will stand firm with him.
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 89:45 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.