Bible Strands
Psalms 119:81
My soul faints for Your salvation; I wait for Your word.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God, positioned between a petition for blameless conduct and a plea for timely comfort.
The words — The Hebrew כָּלְתָ֣ה (kal.Tah) translates literally to "it is exhausted," describing the psalmist's soul, while יִחָֽלְתִּי (yi.Chal.ti) means "I hope" or "I wait." These terms frame the psalmist's physical depletion against a posture of patient expectation.
The thread — This motif of exhausted longing appears in Psalms 84:2 and Psalms 73:26, where the soul and flesh fail while seeking God. The psalmist's expectation for God's word also echoes the plea for revival in Psalms 119:40.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that spiritual endurance begins with admitting depletion rather than self-sufficiency. It requires the reader to anchor their hope directly in divine promises instead of personal strength.
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
כ CAPH. My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.
Cross-references
- Psalms 84:2 My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
- Psalms 119:40 How I long for Your precepts! Revive me in Your righteousness.
- Psalms 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
- Psalms 119:114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I put my hope in Your word.
- Psalms 119:77 May Your compassion come to me, that I may live, for Your law is my delight.
- Song of Solomon 5:8 O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you, if you find my beloved, tell him I am sick with love.
- Revelation 3:15 I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other!
- Psalms 42:1 For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God.
- Psalms 119:42 Then I can answer him who taunts, for I trust in Your word.
- Psalms 119:74 May those who fear You see me and rejoice, for I have hoped in Your word.