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Psalm 88:9

My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, LORD. I have spread out my hands to you.

7Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.
8You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
9My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, LORD. I have spread out my hands to you.
10Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.
11Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction?
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← Psalm 88:8Psalm 88:10 →
Notice

Eyes dim with grief and hands spread toward God show a prayer that continues day after day, with no relief reported in these lines.

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

What do you notice about grief remaining while the speaker calls on God each day?

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What would spreading out your hands express in your prayer today?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

10 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
Job 11:13“If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.Both passages describe hands stretched toward God, though Job’s line gives counsel and the psalm records a sufferer’s prayer.
Psalm 86:3Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.Both speakers keep calling to God: Psalm 88 describes prayer each day, and Psalm 86 describes calling all day long.
Psalm 143:6I spread out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.Both speakers spread out their hands to God, one describing grief and the other thirst like parched land.
Psalm 31:9Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.Both prayers describe grief affecting the eyes, making bodily distress part of what the speaker brings before the LORD.
Psalm 38:10My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.Both speakers describe failing sight within their distress: eyes dim from grief in Psalm 88 and lost light in Psalm 38.
Job 16:20My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,Both speakers turn toward God in distress that shows in their eyes, with dimness in the psalm and tears in Job.
Lamentations 3:48–49My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.Both passages describe sorrow through the eyes; Lamentations names the destruction of the speaker’s people as the cause of tears.
Ezekiel 17:11The shared thread is the LORD’s name; Ezekiel records his word coming, while the psalm records a prayer addressed to him.
John 11:35Jesus wept.Both texts show sorrow through the body: dim eyes in the psalm and tears in the brief account of Jesus.
Job 17:7My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.Both speakers describe an eye dimmed by sorrow, naming grief’s effect on the body.
Where this verse fits

Grief. feeling distant from God. waiting.

What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about patience →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray Psalm 88:9 with hands spread out before bed

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

Grief does not disqualify your prayer. The speaker reaches toward YHWH with dim eyes and outstretched hands; the verse records his plea without reporting relief.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 88:9. 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 88 · 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).