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Psalm 31:10

For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.

8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.
9Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
10For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.
11Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
12I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery.
Notice

Years of sighing and wasted bones make this lament feel worn through, while David’s mention of his own iniquity adds the weight of guilt.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What part of your life, if any, feels measured in sighing rather than years?

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How do David’s words about failing strength shape what you want to tell God?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

7 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 6:2Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint. LORD, heal me, for my bones are troubled.Both prayers describe weakness reaching into the bones, with Psalm 6 making an explicit plea for mercy and healing.
Psalm 22:14I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.Both laments describe bodily collapse through images of damaged bones, making the depth of suffering concrete.
Psalm 38:3There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.Both speakers connect their own sin with bodily weakness and describe distress in their bones.
Psalm 88:15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.Both laments describe affliction stretching across years, with life overshadowed by suffering.
Romans 9:2that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.Both texts speak of sorrow that persists, though Psalm 31 also describes failing strength and wasted bones.
Job 3:24For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.Sighing marks life in both laments, measured against years in the psalm and eating in Job.
Lamentations 1:13“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and …Both passages describe suffering in the bones and strength giving way, though Lamentations names God’s action as the cause.
Where this verse fits

Grief. guilt and confession. chronic pain.

One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Tell God where sorrow has worn you down

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

David names his own iniquity without explaining every sufferer’s weakness. If your sorrow has lasted years, his prayer shows that such grief can still be brought to God.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 31:10. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 31 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).