Psalms 143:4
in Psalms 143My spirit grows faint within me; my heart is dismayed inside me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; My heart within me is desolate.
KJV
Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.
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This verse in Psalms 143
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAnd my spirit was in anguish over me. 'Do you first tell your sins, and you shall be saved.' And again: 'If you only sigh for your sins, you shall be saved.' My heart within me was troubled. Because of my conscience, because I sinned.
This site's exposition
the enemy has pursued my soul
on Psalms 143:3-4
The enemy crushes the life to the ground. The man is left in darkness with the long dead, and Henry took that darkness to be dark thoughts as much as a dark place. The verb for the fainting spirit in verse 4 is ataph, to wrap or shroud over.
This site's exposition
my heart is dismayed inside me
Matthew Henry summed up the state as fightings without and fears within, and he called those fears greater tyrants than Saul himself. Albert Barnes pictured the dismayed heart as a waste desert with no water in it. Verse 6 answers that dryness with thirst.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Let that foe of yours upbraid you, but do you not upbraid him. Regard his words as a training ground in which to exercise philosophy. If you have not been pierced, you are still unwounded, and, if your spirit suffers some injury, confine the hurt within yourself; for the psalmist says, "my heart within me is troubled," that is, he gave no outward expression of his feelings but repressed them, as a wave that breaks against the shore and subsides. Quiet your heart, I beg you, when it howls and rages. Make your passions honor your reason, as an unruly boy respects the presence of a venerable man.
"And My Spirit within me," saith He, "suffered weariness" (ver. 4). Remember, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Here we see one voice. Do we not see plainly the transition from the Head to the members, from the members to the Head? ...
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): Therefore is my spirit overpowered and overwhelmed within me, and I am almost plunged in despair; when without are fightings within are fears, and those fears greater tyrants and oppressors than Saul himself and not so easily out-run.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate. David was no stoic: he felt his banishment, and smarted under the cruel assaults which were made upon his character. He felt perplexed and overturned, lonely and afflicted. He was a man of thought and feeling, and suffered both in spirit and in heart from the undeserved and unprovoked hostility of his persecutors. Moreover, he laboured under the sense of fearful loneliness; he was for a while forsaken of his God, and his soul was exceeding heavy, even unto death.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Therefore is my spirit - I am deeply depressed in spirit, and greatly afflicted in body. My heart within me is desolate - It has no companion of its sorrows, no sympathetic friend. I am utterly destitute of comfort.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me - See the notes at Psa 77:3. Compare Psa 42:5-7. His spirit was broken and crushed. He was in a state of despair as to any human help. My heart within me is desolate - I have no comfort; no cheerfulness; no hope. My soul is like the waste desert where there is no water; where nothing grows; where there are only rocks and sands.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
For an enemy pursued my soul That is to say: If I have sinned before You, behold, I have suffered. This psalm was recited as referring to all of Israel in Babylon.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַתִּתְעַטֵּ֣ף | vatitatef | and it has fainted away | H5848 → | 15 times |
| עָלַ֣י | ʾalai | on me | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| רוּחִ֑י | ruchi | spirit my | H7307 → | 378 times |
| בְּ֝תוֹכִ֗י | betokhi | in [the] midst of me | H8432 → | 418 times |
| יִשְׁתּוֹמֵ֥ם | yishtomem | it is appalled | H8074 → | 86 times |
| לִבִּֽי׃ | libi | heart my | H3820 → | 595 times |
וַתִּתְעַטֵּ֣ףand it has fainted away
vatitatefH5848 →15 times
עָלַ֣יon me
ʾalaiH5921 →5755 times
רוּחִ֑יspirit my
ruchiH7307 →378 times
בְּ֝תוֹכִ֗יin [the] midst of me
betokhiH8432 →418 times
יִשְׁתּוֹמֵ֥םit is appalled
yishtomemH8074 →86 times
לִבִּֽי׃heart my
libiH3820 →595 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Luke 22:44And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
it leads to
- Lamentations 1:12
Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see! Is there any sorrow like mine, which was inflicted on me, which the LORD made me suffer on the day…
- Hebrews 5:7
During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His…
- Psalms 22:12–21
Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
- Lamentations 1:12
Through
Psalms 77:3I remembered You, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint. Selah
it leads to
- Psalms 61:2
From the ends of the earth I call out to You whenever my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 142:2–3
I pour out my complaint before Him; I reveal my trouble to Him.
- Psalms 61:2
Through
Psalms 142:3Although my spirit grows faint within me, You know my way. Along the path I travel they have hidden a snare for me.
it leads to
- Psalms 141:9
Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, and from the lures of evildoers.
- Psalms 140:5
The proud hide a snare for me; the cords of their net are spread along the path, and lures are set out for me. Selah
- Psalms 141:9
Through
Psalms 55:5Fear and trembling grip me, and horror has overwhelmed me.
it leads to
- Job 21:6
When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.
- Job 21:6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 143; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILY; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 7; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jerome, Homily 53, on Psalm 142; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.