“Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.”
The statement that insult has broken the psalmist's heart and sickness followed articulates the transformation of the suffering: the psychological and relational wounds have been internalized and produced physical disease. The hope for sympathy that came to nothing indicates that the psalmist sought support from others but found none. The reference to comforters but finding none articulates profound isolation. This verse articulates the depth of the affliction: it has penetrated beyond external assault into internal disintegration.
Church Fathers on Psalms 69:20
1. We have been born into this world, and added to the people of God, at that period wherein already the herb from a grain of mustard seed has spread out its branches; wherein already the leaven, which at first was contemptible, has leavened three measures, that is, the whole round world repeopled by the three sons of Noe: Genesis 9:19 for from East and West and North and South shall come they that shall sit down with the Patriarchs, Matthew 8:11 while those shall have been…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!