Psalms 102:4

4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.

Psalms 102:4 in Other Translations

KJV
4 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.
ESV
4 My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread.
NLT
4 My heart is sick, withered like grass, and I have lost my appetite.
MSG
4 I'm a ghost of my former self, half-consumed already by terminal illness.
CSB
4 My heart is afflicted, withered like grass; I even forget to eat my food.

Psalms 102:4 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 102:4

My heart is smitten, and withered like grass
Like grass in the summer solstice F4, which being smitten with the heat of the sun, or by some blast of thunder and lightning, is dried up, and withers away; so his heart was smitten with a sense of sin, and of God's wrath and displeasure at him, and with the heat of affliction and trouble, that it failed him, and he could not look up with joy and comfort:

so that I forget to eat my bread;
sometimes, through grief and trouble, persons refuse to eat bread, as Jonathan and Ahab, which is a voluntary act, and purposely done; but here, in the psalmist, there was such a loss of appetite, through sorrow, that he forgot his stated meals, having no manner of inclination to food: some understand this of spiritual food, the bread of life, refusing to be comforted with it; so the Targum,

``for I forgot the law of my doctrine.''


FOOTNOTES:

F4 "Quasi solstitialis herba paulisper fui", Plauti Pseudolus, Act. 1. Sc. 1. v. 36.

Psalms 102:4 In-Context

2 Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.
3 For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers.
4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.
5 In my distress I groan aloud and am reduced to skin and bones.
6 I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.

Cross References 2

  • 1. S Psalms 37:2; Psalms 90:5-6
  • 2. S 1 Samuel 1:7; S Ezra 10:6; S Job 33:20
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