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Psalm 69:8

I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.

6Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord GOD of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.
7Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.
8I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.
9For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.
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← Psalm 69:7Psalm 69:9 →
Notice

Brothers and a shared mother make the estrangement stark: the speaker has become a stranger among those bound to him by family.

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

What difference does the phrase “my mother’s children” make to your reading of the speaker’s loneliness?

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What, if anything, would you want to tell God about feeling like a stranger within your family?

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Connect

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
Psalm 27:10When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.Both passages speak of separation within a family; Psalm 27 adds that the LORD receives the forsaken speaker.
Psalm 31:11Because 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.Both speakers describe exclusion from familiar people: brothers in Psalm 69, neighbors and acquaintances in Psalm 31.
Jeremiah 12:6For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you! Even they have cried aloud after you! Don’t believe them, …Brothers are a source of distress in both passages, through estrangement in the psalm and treachery in Jeremiah.
Job 19:13“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.Both speakers describe distance from their brothers, with Job also naming estrangement from acquaintances.
John 7:5For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.Both passages describe a breach involving brothers: the psalm names estrangement, while John names the unbelief of Jesus’ brothers.
John 1:11He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.Both texts describe exclusion where belonging might be expected: among the speaker’s family and among those John calls Jesus’ own.
Song of Songs 1:6Both speakers name children of their own mother as a source of distress, through estrangement in one and anger in the other.
Job 19:3You have reproached me ten times. You aren’t ashamed that you attack me.Both passages describe suffering at others’ hands, though Job names repeated reproach and attack rather than estrangement from brothers.
Psalm 54:3For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah.The shared word is strangers: Psalm 69 describes becoming one to family, while Psalm 54 describes strangers rising against the speaker.
Micah 7:5–6Both passages portray trouble in close relationships; Micah warns against trust, while the psalm describes estrangement from family.
Psalm 38:11My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.Both speakers describe relatives keeping their distance; Psalm 38 also names friends standing apart during the speaker’s affliction.
Matthew 10:35–36For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.Both passages name division within families: estrangement among siblings in the psalm, and conflict between generations in Jesus’ words.
Where this verse fits

Family conflict. loneliness.

What the Bible says about loneliness →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray Psalm 69:8 for someone estranged from family

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Encouragement

Estrangement from family has a place in prayer to God. The psalm leaves this wound open here; it does not pretend that shared blood guarantees belonging.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 69:8. 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 69 · 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).