Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: LORD, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

PSALMS 88:9KJV
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Psalms 88:9 (KJV)

What does Psalms 88:9 mean?

Psalms 88:9 shows a person whose suffering has worn him down, yet who continues to address the LORD day after day. His sorrow and his repeated appeals are present together in the same verse.

The speaker’s troubled eye gives a physical image of his distress. His stretched-out hands picture a person reaching toward God as he makes his appeal. After describing his isolation in verse 8, the speaker turns directly to the LORD.

The Hebrew behind Psalms 88:9

  • “mourneth” — דָּאַב (daʾav): This word can carry the sense of wasting away or growing weak. It gives the image of an eye diminished by suffering, not simply an eye shedding tears.
  • “hands” — כַּף (kaf): This word often refers to the palm of the hand. The image is of hands held out openly toward the one being addressed.

Why Psalms 88:9 matters

  • The speaker’s appeal is repeated, not confined to a single moment. “Daily” marks the continued calling that goes with his ongoing distress.
  • His words in verse 9 lead into questions about death in verses 10–12. Those questions give urgency to his appeal: he asks whether those in the grave can declare God’s deeds.

Where else these words appear

“mourneth” Hebrew H1669 · used in 3 verses

  • Jeremiah 31:12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
  • Jeremiah 31:25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.

“out” Hebrew H7849 · used in 5 verses

  • Numbers 11:32 And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.
  • 2 Samuel 17:19 And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.
  • Job 12:23 He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again.

“affliction” Hebrew H6040 · used in 37 verses

  • Genesis 16:11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
  • 1 Chronicles 22:14 Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.
  • Psalms 107:10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;