Bible Strands
Psalms 6:3
My soul is deeply distressed. How long, O LORD, how long?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the LORD between pleas for physical healing and spiritual rescue, marking the peak of an acute personal crisis. The speaker voices the declaration directly to God during a moment of waiting for intervention.
The words — נִבְהֲלָ֣ה (niv.ha.Lah) translates literally as "it is disturbed," and עַד־מָתָֽי ('ad-matai) combines "until" and "when" to form the repeated question "How long?"
The thread — The "how long" petition appears in Psalms 90:13 and Psalms 13:1, though the latter employs the distinct phrase עַד־אָ֣נָה (ad-anah). The motif of a troubled soul also surfaces in John 12:27, which records a soul in distress but does not contain the prolonged waiting question.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader to acknowledge prolonged suffering without masking it, and to voice that waiting directly to God. It requires honest confrontation with delay while maintaining the posture of petition.
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
My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?
Cross-references
- Psalms 90:13 Return, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants.
- John 12:27 Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour.
- Psalms 13:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?
- Psalms 42:5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him for the salvation of His presence.
- Psalms 42:11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.
- Psalms 77:2 In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.
- Luke 18:7 Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay in helping them?
- Psalms 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
- Psalms 31:9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.
- Psalms 38:8 I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.