Bible Strands
Psalms 88:7
Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to God while describing a state of total confinement in the deepest depths. This declaration follows the statement of being placed in the lowest pit and precedes the removal of all companions.
The words — חֲמָתֶ֑ךָ (cha.ma.Te./kha) means "your anger," and סָמְכָ֣ה (sa.me.Khah) means "it has lain" or "weighed heavily." Together they describe divine wrath as a physical weight pressing down on the speaker.
The thread — The imagery of crushing waves and divine wrath appears in Psalms 42:7, where breakers roll over the psalmist, and in Job 6:4, where God's terrors are arrayed against him. Romans 2:5 also traces this thread by linking unrepentant hearts to stored-up wrath.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize suffering as a direct encounter with divine judgment rather than a metaphorical abstraction. It asks for acknowledgment of being overwhelmed without supplying comfort or resolution.
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
Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
Cross-references
- Psalms 42:7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.
- Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
- Romans 2:5 But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- 1 Peter 2:24 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
- Job 10:16 Should I hold my head high, You would hunt me like a lion, and again display Your power against me.
- Psalms 32:4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah
- Psalms 38:1 A Psalm of David, for remembrance. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
- Psalms 90:7 For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.
- Psalms 102:10 because of Your indignation and wrath, for You have picked me up and cast me aside.
- Jonah 2:3 For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me.