Psalms 38:10 - John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Bible Comments

My heart panteth,.... Or "goes about" m; runs here and there, and finds no rest; as Aben Ezra interprets the word from the Targum he cites; though the Targum we have renders it, "my heart shakes with fear", or dread, as persons in a fever. Jarchi interprets the word, surrounded with grief; it denotes the panting or palpitation of the heart, through sorrow and dread, and the failing of it, even as at death;

my strength faileth me, or "forsakes me" n; bodily strength and spiritual strength; the strength of faith, hope, and confidence;

as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me; which is often the case of persons under bodily disorders, their eyes grow dim, and sight fails them; and this might be true in a spiritual sense of the psalmist, who had lost sight of God as his covenant God; of his interest in his love, in the blessings of his grace, and in eternal salvation, and was walking in darkness, and saw no light.

m סחרחר "circuivit", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus. n עזבני "dereliquit me", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator so Musculus, Cocceius.

Psalms 38:10

10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gonec from me.