Psalms 88:9
in Psalms 88My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O LORD; I spread out my hands to You.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Mine eye wasteth away by reason of affliction: I have called daily upon thee, O Jehovah; I have spread forth my hands unto thee.
KJV
Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
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This verse in Psalms 88
Commentary
11 notes on this verseMine eye mourneth by reason of affliction,.... Or dropped tears, as the Targum, by which grief was vented; see Psa 6:7. Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee; in prayer, as the Targum adds, this being a prayer gesture: notwithstanding his troubles continued and increased, he did not leave off praying, though he was not immediately heard and answered, which is what is tacitly complained of, as in Psa 22:
This site's exposition
I am confined and cannot escape
on Psalms 88:8-9
Verse 8 puts the loss of his friends in God's hands, and it says he was made repulsive to them. He is shut in and cannot escape. His eyes are dim with grief in verse 9, and he still calls daily and spreads out his hands.
This site's exposition
I spread out my hands to You
Albert Barnes gave grow dim literally as pine away, eyes worn out with weeping. Spreading out the hands was the posture of prayer, and John Gill noted he kept to it with no answer given. Charles Spurgeon said the tears wet his prayers without cooling them.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
"My eyes languished through poverty." I who was whole in my majesty was made weak for the sins of men.
"I have cried to thee, O Lord." Not only with the voice, but with the heart: for thus indeed we cry to the Father. "Crying in our hearts, Abba, Father." "All the day I stretched out my hands to thee." This is the testimony which the apostle in the Epistle to the Romans applied in the person of the Savior. You see that we do no violence to the psalm, but follow the authority of the apostle.
"My eyes became weak from want" [Psalm 88:9]. For what eyes are we to understand? If the eyes of the flesh in which He suffered, we do not read that His eyes became weak from want, that is, from hunger, in His Passion, as is often the case; as He was betrayed after His Supper, and crucified on the same day: if the inner eyes, how were they weakened from want, in which there was a light that could never fail? But He meant by His eyes those members in the body, of which He was Himself the head, which, as brighter and more eminent and chief above the rest, He loved. It was of this body that the Apostle was speaking, when he wrote, taking his metaphor from our own body, "If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?" etc. [1 Corinthians 12:17-21] What he wished understood by these words, he has expressed more clearly, by adding, "Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular." [1 Corinthians 12:27] Wherefore as those eyes, that is, the holy Apostles, to whom not flesh and blood, but the Father which is in Heaven had revealed Him, so that Peter said, "You are Christ, the Son of the Living God," [Matthew 16:16] when they saw Him betrayed, and suffering such evils, saw Him not such as they wished, as He did not come forth, did not manifest Himself in His virtue and power, but still hidden in His secrecy, endured everything as a man overcome and enfeebled, they became weak for want, as if their food, their Light, had been withdrawn from them.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
), as one that would take hold on thee, and even catch at the mercy, with a holy fear of coming short and missing of it." 2. He was very frequent and constant in prayer: I have called upon thee daily (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+odd-straight-quotes
11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction? 12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 13 But unto thee have I cried, O L ORD ; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:96%@v11-13
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction. He wept his eyes out. He exhausted the lachrymal glands, he wore away the sight itself. Tears in showers are a blessing, and work our good; but in floods they become destructive and injurious. Lord, I have called daily upon thee. His tears wetted his prayers, but did not damp then fervour. He prayed still, though no answer came to dry his eyes. Nothing can make a true believer cease praying; it is a part of his nature, and pray he must. I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction. He wept his eyes out. He exhausted the lachrymal glands, he wore away the sight itself. Tears in showers are a blessing, and work our good; but in floods they become destructive and injurious. Lord, I have called daily upon thee. His tears wetted his prayers, but did not damp then fervour. He prayed still, though no answer came to dry his eyes. Nothing can make a true believer cease praying; it is a part of his nature, and pray he must. I have stretched out my hands unto thee. He used the appropriate posture of a supplicant, of his own accord; men need no posture maker, or master of the ceremonies, when they are eagerly pleading for mercy, nature suggests to them attitudes both natural and correct. As a little child stretches out its hands to its mother while it cries, so did this afflicted child of God. He prayed all over, his eyes wept, his voice cried, his hands were outstretched, and his heart broke. This was prayer indeed.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction - I weep; my eye pours out tears. Literally, My eye pines away, or decays. Compare Job 16:20, note; Isa 38:3, note; Psa 6:6, note. Lord, I have called daily upon thee - That is, I have prayed earnestly and long, but I have received no answer. I have stretched out my hands unto thee - I have spread out my hands in the attitude of prayer. The idea is that of earnest supplication.
The words behind it
11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עֵינִ֥י | ʾeini | eye my | H5869 → | 887 times |
| דָאֲבָ֗ה | daavah | it is faint | H1669 → | |
| מִנִּ֫י | mini | from | H4480 → | 1188 times |
| עֹ֥נִי | ʾoni | affliction | H6040 → | 36 times |
| קְרָאתִ֣יךָ | keraticha | I have called out to you | H7121 → | 733 times |
| יְהוָ֣ה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| בְּכָל־ | bekhol | on every | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| י֑וֹם | yom | day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| שִׁטַּ֖חְתִּי | shitachti | I have spread out | H7849 → | |
| אֵלֶ֣יךָ | ʾeleikha | to you | H413 → | 5510 times |
| כַפָּֽי׃ | khapai | hands my | H3709 → | 192 times |
עֵינִ֥יeye my
ʾeiniH5869 →887 times
דָאֲבָ֗הit is faint
daavahH1669 →
מִנִּ֫יfrom
miniH4480 →1188 times
עֹ֥נִיaffliction
ʾoniH6040 →36 times
קְרָאתִ֣יךָI have called out to you
keratichaH7121 →733 times
יְהוָ֣הO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
בְּכָל־on every
bekholH3605 →5413 times
י֑וֹםday
yomH3117 →2304 times
שִׁטַּ֖חְתִּיI have spread out
shitachtiH7849 →
אֵלֶ֣יךָto you
ʾeleikhaH413 →5510 times
כַפָּֽי׃hands my
khapaiH3709 →192 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 143:6I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
it leads to
- Job 11:13
As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
- Psalms 63:1
O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
- Psalms 84:2
My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
- Job 11:13
Through
Psalms 42:3My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
it leads to
- Psalms 79:10
Why should the nations ask, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations Your vengeance for the bloodshed of Your servants.
- Psalms 115:2
Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
- Psalms 79:10
Through
Job 11:13As for you, if you direct your heart and lift up your hands to Him,
it leads to
- Psalms 143:6
I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
- Psalms 143:6
Through
Psalms 86:3Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I call to You all day long.
it leads to
- Psalms 57:1
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy, for in You my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of Your wings I will take shelter until the danger has passed.
- Ephesians 6:18
Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.
- Psalms 57:1
Where this verse is studied
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About Psalms
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 88; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Homily 65, on Psalm 87 (Alternate Series); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.