Bible Strands
Psalms 102:23
He has broken my strength on the way; He has cut short my days.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to God in the midst of a personal crisis, positioned between the future vision of nations worshiping the Lord and a direct plea for preservation. The moment captures the speaker's acute awareness of premature decline while awaiting divine intervention.
The words — The verb עִנָּה ('innāh) carries the literal sense of "he has humbled" or "broken," and קִצֵּר (qiṣṣēr) means "he has cut short." These terms describe the speaker's direct experience of divinely accelerated weakness and abbreviated lifespan.
The thread — The motif of prematurely ended days appears in Job 21:21 regarding the exhaustion of one's months, and resonates with the rejected anointed figure in Psalms 89:38. The abrupt termination of life also aligns with the eschatological warning in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 about events preceding the man of lawlessness.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that human vitality and lifespan are subject to divine action rather than natural progression. It demands a clear-eyed acceptance of premature weakness while directing focus toward God's unchanging years.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
Cross-references
- Job 21:21 For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out?
- Psalms 89:38 Now, however, You have spurned and rejected him; You are enraged by Your anointed one.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed.
- 1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,
- 2 Timothy 3:1 But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come.
- Revelation 11:2 But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.
- Revelation 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.