Read
Psalm 55:4
My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me.
2Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan
3because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me.
4My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me.
5Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.
6I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest.
Notice
The heart’s pain and the terrors of death make this prayer hard to soften: the speaker addresses God while fear still has its grip.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What, if anything, would you want to tell God about the phrase “the terrors of death”?
Write on thisWhat words would describe your own heart today, alongside the pained heart in this verse?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 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
Hebrews 2:15and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.Both texts name the fear of death; the psalm describes its terror, while Hebrews speaks of deliverance from its bondage.
Psalm 116:3The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.Both speakers describe death as something closing in on them, accompanied by pain and distress.
Mark 14:33–34He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed.Mark describes Jesus as troubled and distressed, sharing the psalm’s plain acknowledgment of anguish.
2 Corinthians 1:8–10For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia: that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our …Paul’s account of affliction beyond his strength shares the psalm’s sense of suffering under the threat of death.
Psalm 18:4–5The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.Death surrounds the speaker in Psalm 18 and brings terror in Psalm 55; both describe fear under threat.
Hebrews 5:7He, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been …Both passages place distress over death within prayer to God, with Hebrews describing strong crying and tears.
Job 18:14He will be rooted out of the security of his tent. He will be brought to the king of terrors.Both use terror in connection with death, though Job records Bildad’s description of another person rather than a sufferer’s prayer.
Psalm 69:20Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.Both speakers locate suffering in the heart; Psalm 69 names reproach and the absence of comforters.
Psalm 102:3–5For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.Both speakers describe suffering through bodily language: a heart in pain in Psalm 55, burning bones in Psalm 102.
Isaiah 38:10–13I said, “In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol. I am deprived of the residue of my years.”Both speakers face death as a present threat; Isaiah’s speaker describes losing the years he expected to live.
Matthew 26:37–38He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled.Matthew’s description of Jesus as sorrowful and troubled shares the psalm’s frank expression of inward suffering.
John 12:27“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time’? But I came to this time for this cause.Jesus names his troubled soul and speaks to the Father, while the psalm’s speaker names his pained heart within prayer.
Where this verse fits
Anxiety or panic. illness or diagnosis. death and what comes after.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Fear does not have to pass before you speak to God. Here, a heart in pain speaks within a prayer, and the terror remains part of what is said.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 55:4. 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 55 · 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).