Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.
Parallel Translations
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Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.
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Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
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(38-10) Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my sighing is not hid from Thee.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Psalms 38:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 10:17 Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear,
- Psalms 6:6 I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.
- 2 Corinthians 5:2 For most certainly in this we groan, longing to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
- Romans 8:26-27 In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.
- Psalms 102:5 By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
- John 1:48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
- Romans 8:22-23 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.
- Psalms 102:20 to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 9 O Lord! thou knowest all my desire. He…
9 O Lord! thou knowest all my desire. He adds this, not so much in respect of God, as to strengthen himself in the hope of obtaining some alleviation of his trouble, and thus to animate himself to persevering prayer. It may be explained in a twofold sense, either as denoting his confident assurance that his prayers and groanings were heard by the Lord, or a simple declaration that he had poured out before God all his cares and troubles; but the meaning is substantially the same: for as long as men entertain any doubt whether their groanings have come up before God, they are kept in constant disquietude and dread, which so fetters and holds captive their minds, that they cannot elevate their souls to God. On the contrary, a firm persuasion that our groanings do not vanish away in their ascent to God, but that he graciously hears them, and familiarly listens to them, produces promptitude and alacrity in engaging in prayer. It might, therefore, prove no small ground of encouragement to David, that he approached God, not with a doubting and trembling heart, but strengthened and encouraged by the assurance of which we have spoken, and of which he himself speaks in another place, that his tears were laid up in God’s bottle, (Psalm 56:8.) In order that we may obtain access to God, we must believe that he is “a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” as the apostle states in his Epistle to the Hebrews, (Hebrews 11:6.) But I rather approve of the other interpretation, That David here declares that he had disburdened all his sorrows into the bosom of God. The reason why the greater part of men derive no profit from complaining grievously in their sorrow is, that they direct not their prayers and sighs to God. David, then, in order to encourage himself in the assured conviction that God will be his deliverer, says, that he had always been a witness of his sorrows, and was well acquainted with them, because he had neither indulged in a fretful spirit, nor poured out into the air his complaints and howlings as the unbelieving are wont to do, but had spread out before God himself all the desires of his heart.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 38:9 Lord, all my desire [is] before thee;…
Psa 38:9 Lord, all my desire [is] before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
Ver. 9. Lord, all my desire is before thee] Confused desires, broken requests, if from a broken spirit, are upon the file of heaven, and stand before God till they may have an answer.
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And my groaning is not hid from thee] No, not my breathing, Lam 3:56. God can feel breath; but the groanings of his people go to his heart.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I do not utter all these complaints, nor roar…
I do not utter all these complaints, nor roar out, that thou mayst hear and know them, for thou hearest and knowest even my lowest groans; yea, mine inward desires, and all my necessities. And therefore, I pray thee, pity and deliver me, as I trust thou wilt do.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain My heart panteth,.... Or "goes about" (m); runs here…
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;
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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) "circuivit", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus. (n) "dereliquit me", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Musculus, Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Lord, all my desire is before thee]…
Verse 9. Lord, all my desire is before thee] I long for nothing so much as thy favour; and for this my heart is continually going out after thee. Instead of אדני Adonai, Lord, several of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. have יהוהYehovah.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Lord, all my desire is before thee - That…
Lord, all my desire is before thee - That is, Thou knowest all that I would ask or that I need. This is the expression of one who felt that his only hope was in God, and that He fully understood the case. There was no need of repeating the request. He was willing to leave the whole case with God.
And my groaning is not hid from thee - My sighing; the expression of my sorrow and anguish. As God certainly heard these sighs, and as He wholly understood the case, David hoped that He would mercifully interpose in his behalf.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain That God can hear (Rom 8:26).
That God can hear (Rom 8:26).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. In a subdued tone the psalmist now proceeds…
9. In a subdued tone the psalmist now proceeds to speak (9-15) of his trust in God, and of the effect which his affliction had wrought on friends and enemies.
All my desire is before thee—He had laid his cause before God for moral and judicial judgment, and rested it there.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. God knows what he needs (Psa_10:17; Mat_6:8).
9. God knows what he needs (Psa_10:17; Mat_6:8).
9–14. The neglect of friends and the scorn of enemies augment his sufferings.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) All my desire.—Notice the clutch at the thought…
(9) All my desire.—Notice the clutch at the thought of divine justice, as the clutch of a drowning man amid that sea of trouble.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 9-14. In this second strophe the physical are…
Vers. 9-14. In this second strophe the physical are subordinated to the moral sufferings; the former being touched on in one verse only (ver. 10), the latter occupying the rest of the section. Of these the most tangible are the pain caused by the desertion of his "lovers," "friends," and "kinsmen" (ver. 11), and the alarm arising from the action taken, simultaneously, by his ill wishers and adversaries (ver. 12). These afflictions have reduced him to a condition of silence almost of apathy, such as is described in vers. 13, 14.
Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee. This has been called "the first indication of hope in this psalm;" but there is a gleam of hope in the prayer of ver. 1. Hope, however, does here show itself more plainly than before. The psalmist has laid "all his desire" before God, and feels that God is weighing and considering it. He has also opened to him "all his groanings uttered freely all his complaint. This he could have been led to do only from a conviction that God was not irrevocably offended with him, but might, by repentance, confession, and earnest striving after amendment (ver. 20), be reconciled, and induced to become his Defence (ver. 15) and his Salvation (ver. 22).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 9. Lord, all my desire is before thee.…
Ver. 9. Lord, all my desire is before thee. If unuttered, yet perceived. Blessed be God, he reads the longings of our hearts; nothing can be hidden from him; what we cannot tell to him he perfectly understands. The psalmist is conscious that he has not exaggerated, and therefore appeals to heaven for a confirmation of his words. The good Physician understands the symptoms of our disease and sees the hidden evil which they reveal, hence our case is safe in his hands. And my groaning is not hid from thee.
"He takes the meaning of our tears,
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The language of our groans."
Sorrow and anguish hide themselves from the observation of man, but God spies them out. None more lonely than the broken hearted sinner, yet hath he the Lord for his companion.
Ver. 9. There are usually, if not always, pains with desires, especially in desires after the creature, because that oftentimes there is a frustration of our desires, or an elongation of the things, the things are far off, hard to come by; our desires oftentimes are mute, they speak not; or the things that we desire, know not our minds: but our desires after God always speak, they are open unto God, he heareth their voice. Lord, all my desire is before thee, saith David, and my groaning is not hid from thee. Therefore it must needs be sweet, when the soul lies thus open unto God. Other desires do not assure and secure a man in the things he desires; a man may wish this and wish that, and go without both; but the soul that thus longs after God is instated in his wish, hath a present enjoyment, and certainly shall have a full enjoyment of him. "He will fulfil the desire of those that fear him: he also will hear their cry." Ps 145:19. Joseph Symonds.
Ver. 9. My groaning is not hid from thee. Secret tears for secret sins are an excellent sign of a holy heart, and a healing balsam for broken spirits. God well understands the language of half words interrupted with sighs, and interprets them as the steams and breathings of a broken heart. As all our foolishness is before him to cover it, so is all our heaviness to ease it; and therefore shall our souls praise and please him more than a bullock with young horns and hoofs upon his altar. Holy mourning keeps out carnal sorrow and produces spirit joy. It stirs up the heart of a saint to beg preventing grace which no false heart can perform without secret reserves. This inward sorrow prevents open shame. God will never give up such souls to be trampled on by spiritual enemies, who are already humbled by themselves. In saints' humiliation there's a door opened for secret hope, because of the precious promises that are plighted to it, and especially of preventing future sin by strengthening grace. For as the love of God is the fountain of all true repentance, so it is the attractive of more incomes of divine love to the soul. Samuel Lee.
Ver. 9. The many desires of God's children: the fact that God understands them even when unexpressed; and the certainty that he will grant them.
Ver. 9. Omniscience, a source of consolation to the desponding.
Psalms 38:10*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my…
Psa_38:9
Lord, all my desire is before Thee; and my groaning is not hid from Thee.
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Gods knowledge of our desires
I. We have here A fact that is without exception. The Lord knows all our desires. How great, then, must God be, and how near such knowledge brings us to God.
II. The performance of as important duty. David was in the habit of prayer. He does not speak of his prayer as an unusual thing, or that should make men talk of him as eminently religious. Now, such habitual prayer is our duty. Do not restrain prayer, and remember, the groaning that is directed to God is very often effectual fervent prayer.
III. A state of hallowed privilege. If the text be true of us, then there is no need for anxiety. God will surely do what is best for me.
IV. A large provision of rest for the soul. How quiet a man may be, and ought to be, who can speak thus to God. It is the childlike converse of a man with his God.
V. A comfortable thought for seasons of weakness and discouragement. What a comfort it is to feel that God knows all, that He will accept as real prayer the utterance of a mere groan.
VI. It is also A plea is prayer. I have told Thee all, now do as Thou hast said. (Samuel Martin.)
Desires towards God
We would not pamper weakness till we seem to offer a premium to unbelief; but yet we would feed the feeble in the kings meadows till they become strong in the Lord. If great efforts are put forth to build or endow a hospital, you do not say, Sickness is a desirable thing, for all this money is spent upon comforting and helping those who feel it. Your feelings are quite the contrary: though these sick folk become the object of care, it is not as a reward to them, but as an act of compassion towards them. Let none, therefore, say that the preacher encourages a low state of grace: he encourages it no more than the physician encourages disease when he tries by his care and skill to heal the sick.
I. Desires towards God should be made known to him.
1. Because our whole life ought to be transparent before God. What secrets can there be between a soul convinced of sin and a pardoning God.? Tell Him your fears for the past, your anxieties for the present, and your dreads for the future; tell Him your suspicions of yourself, and your trembling lest you should be deceived. Make all your heart known unto God, and keep back nothing, for much benefit will come to you from being honest with your best Friend.
2. Because it is commanded of God that, we should make our desires known to him. He says that men ought always to pray and not to faint; and again, in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God. Jesus said, Watch and pray, and His apostle said, I will that men pray everywhere. And what is this but to make your desires known to God?
3. It is a great benefit to a man to be able to express his desires, and this is an argument for making them known to God. A glance at some desires would seal their doom, for we should feel them to be unworthy to be presented before the Lord. ]Jut when it is a holy and pure desire, tell it, for it will relieve your heart, it will heighten your estimate of the blessing sought, it will bring you to think over the promises made to such desires, it will thereby strengthen your hope that your desire will be fulfilled, and enable you by faith to obtain it. The prayerful expression of one desire will often quicken further desires, and make a thousand of them where there was but one.
4. A gracious expression of desire before God will often be to you a proof that those desires are right. Thy desire must be a good thing, or thou wouldst not dare to make it known to God; and seeing that it is a good thing, take care thou nurture it well, and cause it to grow by expressing it with thy whole heart before God.
II. Desires towards God are gracious things. Intense groaning desires towards God are in themselves works of grace.
1. For certainly they are associated with other graces. When a man can say, All my desire is towards God, and my heart groans after Him, and yet I find little in myself but these desires, I think we can point to some other good things which are in his heart. Surely humility is apparent enough. Thou takes, a right view of thyself, O man of desires! A lowly esteem hast thou of thyself, and this is well. Aye, and there is faith in thee, for no man heartily desires to believe unless he doth in some measure already believe. There is a measure of believing in every true desire after believing. And thou hast love, too; I am sure of it. Did ever a man desire to love that which he did not love already? Thou hast already some drawings of thy heart Christwards, or else thou wouldst not cry to be more filled with it. He who loves most is the very man who most passionately desires to love more. I am sure, also, that thou hast some hope; for a man does not continue to groan out before his God, and to make his desire known, unless he has some hope that his desire will be satisfied, and that his grief will be assuaged. David lets out the secret of his own hope, for he says in the fifteenth verse, In Thee, O Lord, do I hope. You do not hope anywhere else, do you?
2. Another proof that they are gracious is that they come from God. Now, as God can say of all that He creates, It is very good, I come to the conclusion that these groaning desires after God are very good. They are not great, nor strong, but they are gracious. There is water in a drop as well as in the sea, there is life in a gnat as well as in an elephant, there is light in a beam as well as in the sun, and so is there grace in a desire as truly as in complete sanctification.
3. Holy desires are a great test of character: a test of eminent value. You inquire, Can you judge a mans character by his desires? 1 answer, yes. I will give you the other side of the question that you may see our own side all the more clearly. You may certainly judge a bad man by his desires. Here is a man who desires to be a thief. Well, he is a thief in heart and spirit. Who would trust him in his house now that he knows that he groans to rob and steal? Let us, then, measure out justice in our own case by the rule which we allow towards others. If you have an earnest, agonizing desire towards that which is right, even though through the infirmity of the flesh and the corruption of your nature you do not reach to the height of your desire, yet that desire is a test of your character. The main set of the current determines its direction: the main bent of the desire is the test of the life.
III. Desires towards God are carefully observed by him. God has a quick eye to spy out anything that is good in His people; if there is but one speck of soundness, if there is a single mark of grace, if there is any remaining token of spiritual life, though it be only a faint desire, though it be only a dolorous groan, the Father sees it, and records it, casting the evil behind His back, and refusing to behold it.
IV. Earnest desires towards, God will be fulfilled.
1. These desires are of Gods creation, and you cannot imagine that God would create desires in us which He will not satisfy. Why, look even in nature, if He gives the beast hunger and thirst He provides for it the grass upon the mountains and the streams that flow among the valleys. If, then, He Himself has put in you a desire after Himself, He will give you Himself. If He has made you long after pardon, purity, eternal salvation, He means to give you these.
2. Remember, O desiring man, that already you have a blessing. When our Divine Master was on the mountain-side the benedictions which He pronounced were no word blessings, but they were full of weight and meaning, and among the rest of them is this--Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed while they hunger, blessed while they thirst. Yes, they are already blessed, and there is this at the back of it, for they shall be filled.
3. And we may be sure that God will hear the desires which He has Himself created, because He loves to gratify right desires. It is said of Him in nature, Thou openest Thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. Doth God care for sparrows in the bush, for minnows in the brook, for midges in the air, for tiny things in a drop of stagnant water, and will He fail to satisfy the longings of His own children? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Our groaning not hid from God
The wistful look of a dumb creature, or a moan of pain, is a prayer to a merciful man. Man deals tenderly with those who are robbed of the organs of expression. He watches with sedulous earnestness each faint indication of pain or need, that he may be ready with his ministry. Is the ear of God more dull, think you, than mans, to these unutterable groanings; or is this human pity and sympathy the faint and finite image of an infinite pity and sympathy which are waiting to respond to us there? Pity which, great as may be the power of prayer which words can frame, finds in the longing that is too deep for words, the groaning that is too sad for tears, an appeal which is irresistible, and would even endure the sharpness of death rather than that such a suppliant should be sent empty away.
I. The efficacy of prayer.
1. It cleans and purifies the desires. The effort to utter them before God in prayer is a purification. Many a mixed desire which lies confusedly in the mind, filling it with distress, gets purified by the effort. The bringing it into Gods presence is like bringing a mass of rank vegetation into the sunlight. Leave it there awhile. The pure fire of Gods presence kills all that is noxious in the desire, all that is born of worldliness and lust.
II. The second clause opens a yet deeper depth. There are groanings which cannot become prayers, and my groaning is not hid from they. Would that I could pray! is the language, in moments of deep religious feeling, of many a vain, selfish, worldly, or lustful heart; I should feel then that the battle was really gained. There are times when the effort to pray seems almost impious. A kind of dull despair weighs on the spirit, and crushes down all its energies. When I would do good, evil is present with me, O miserable man that I am. What help can there be, what hope, for such an one as I? Brethren, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. But there is a mightier thing still; something that lodges a more resistless appeal in the very heart of the Divine compassion: it is the pain that cannot tell its misery in a prayer. It is a blessed thing for me that God heareth and answereth prayer; more blessed still, that My groaning is not hid from Thee. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 my heart's deepest yearnings
my heart's deepest yearnings
Here "my heart" refers to the writer. It may be helpful to state that the writer desires good health. AT: "My strongest desires" or "that I desire you to heal me" (See: Synecdoche and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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my groanings are not hidden from you
This can be stated in active form. AT: "you are able to see all my moans of sorrow" (See: Active or Passive)
My heart pounds
This idiom means his heart beats intensely. AT: "My heart beats loudly" (See: Idiom)
my strength fades
"I become very weak"
my eyesight dims
"I can no longer see well"
translationWords
lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 38:9-12 The psalmist longs for a restored relationship with…
38:9-12 The psalmist longs for a restored relationship with God, but he feels alienated. He finds himself lost and alone as his friends disappear.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.