Psalms 73:21
in Psalms 73When my heart was grieved and I was pierced within,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For my soul was grieved, And I was pricked in my heart:
KJV
Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
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This verse in Psalms 73
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThe holy poet here reviews his inward struggle and awards himself censure for his folly. His pain had been intense; he says, Thus my heart was grieved. It was a deep seated sorrow, and one which penetrated his inmost being. Alexander reads it, "My heart is soured." His spirit had become embittered; he had judged in a harsh, crabbed, surly manner. He had become atrabilious, full of black bile, melancholy, and choleric; he had poisoned his own life at the fountain head, and made all its streams to be bitter as gall. And I was pricked in my reins.
This site's exposition
my heart was grieved
on Psalms 73:21-22
The honesty turns on the psalmist himself. The Hebrew word behind pierced within is the one for the kidneys, which Hebrew idiom uses for the inward seat of feeling. He calls himself senseless, ignorant, a brute beast before God.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Because my heart was delighted" (ver. 21). He is saying with what things he is tempted: "because my heart was delighted," he saith, "my reins also were changed." When those temporal things delighted me, my reins were changed. It may also be understood thus: "because my heart was delighted" in God, "my reins also were changed," that is, my lusts were changed, and I became wholly chaste. "My reins were changed." And hear how. "And I was brought unto nothing, and I knew not" (ver. 22). I, the very man, who now say these things of rich men, once longed for such things: therefore "even I was brought to nothing" when my steps were almost overthrown. "And I was brought unto nothing, and I knew not." We must not therefore despair even of them, against whom I was saying such things.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Thus my heart was grieved,....
The psalmist designs an account of a temptation he was strongly assaulted with--to envy the prosperity of the wicked, a common temptation, which has tried the graces of many of the saints. He lays down, in the first place, that great principle which he is resolved to abide by and not to quit while he was parleying with this temptation,
Fretfulness is a corruption that is its own correction. Now in the reflection upon it, 1. He owns it was his folly thus to vex himself: " So foolish was I to be my own tormentor." Let peevish people thus reproach themselves for, and shame themselves out of, their discontents.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
The holy poet here reviews his inward struggle and awards himself censure for his folly. His pain had been intense; he says, Thus my heart was grieved. It was a deep seated sorrow, and one which penetrated his inmost being. Alexander reads it, "My heart is soured." His spirit had become embittered; he had judged in a harsh, crabbed, surly manner. He had become atrabilious, full of black bile, melancholy, and choleric; he had poisoned his own life at the fountain head, and made all its streams to be bitter as gall. And I was pricked in my reins. He was as full of pain as a man afflicted with renal disease; he had pierced himself through with many sorrows; his hard thoughts were like so many calculi in his kidneys; he was utterly wretched and woebegone, and all through his own reflections. O miserable philosophy, which stretches the mind on the rack, and breaks it on the wheel! O blessed faith, which drives away the inquisitors, and sets the captives free!
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Thus may heart was grieved - The different views which I got of this subject quite confounded me; I was equally astonished at their sudden overthrow and my own ignorance. I felt as if I were a beast in stupidity. I permitted my mind to be wholly occupied with sensible things, like the beasts that perish and did not look into a future state; nor did I consider, nor submit to, the wise designs of an unerring Providence.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thus my heart was grieved - literally, and more expressively, “was soured.” The meaning is, that his heart was grieved, pained, dissatisfied. His mind was embittered, and he was rendered unhappy, by the views which he cherished about God, as doubting the wisdom and justice of his dealings with people - and about people, as being envious at their prosperity. And I was pricked in my reins - The reins are often in the Scriptures represented as the seat of the thoughts or affections. See the notes at Psa 7:9. The word rendered “pricked” means to sharpen, as a sword; and then, to pierce and penetrate as a sword does. The idea is, that these thoughts, so distressing and painful, seemed to be like a sharp sword penetrating to the seat of life.
The words behind it
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֭י | ki | if | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| יִתְחַמֵּ֣ץ | yitchametz | it was embittered | H2556 → | |
| לְבָבִ֑י | levavi | heart my | H3824 → | 252 times |
| וְ֝כִלְיוֹתַ֗י | vekhilyotai | and kidneys my | H3629 → | 31 times |
| אֶשְׁתּוֹנָֽן׃ | ʾeshtonan | I was pierced | H8150 → | 9 times |
כִּ֭יif
kiH3588 →4482 times
יִתְחַמֵּ֣ץit was embittered
yitchametzH2556 →
לְבָבִ֑יheart my
levaviH3824 →252 times
וְ֝כִלְיוֹתַ֗יand kidneys my
vekhilyotaiH3629 →31 times
אֶשְׁתּוֹנָֽן׃I was pierced
ʾeshtonanH8150 →9 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
Psalms 37:1Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.
it leads to
- Psalms 37:7
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 23:17
Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always continue in the fear of the LORD.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 24:19
Do not fret over evildoers, and do not be envious of the wicked.
- Psalms 37:7
Through
Psalms 37:7Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes.
it leads to
- Psalms 27:14
Wait patiently for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the LORD!
- James 5:7–11
Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.
- Psalms 62:5
Rest in God alone, O my soul, for my hope comes from Him.
- Hebrews 10:36–37
You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.
- Lamentations 3:25–26
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
- Psalms 27:14
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 73; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 3; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.