Psalms 25:17

Psa 25:17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged: [O] bring thou me out of my distresses.

Ver. 17. The troubles of my heart are enlarged] Whereby my heart is sorely straitened, so that I can hardly breathe: Oh, "hide not thine ear at my breathing," at my cry, Lam 3:56. En patet in curas area lata meas; all afflictions enter into mine heart, as by a wide gate (R. Obad.). Cor vix capax tribulationum mearum (Vat.).

Out of my distresses] Wherewith I am pent up and pinched; as afterwards Paul was pricked with the messenger of Satan.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa 25:17-20. The troubles of my heart are enlarged — My outward troubles are accompanied with grievous distresses of my mind and heart for my sins, which have procured them, and for thy great displeasure manifested in them. Look upon mine affliction — With compassion, as Exo 3:7-8; Psa 31:7; Psa 106:44. And forgive all my sins — The procuring and continuing causes of my trouble. “David joins this petition to the foregoing one, because he considered, whatever afflictions and crosses were brought upon him, how just soever they might be, with respect to his enemies, who were the apparent causes of them; yet that, according to God’s appointment, or permission, they might be the effects and punishment of his sins.” — Dodd. O keep my soul — Myself, or my life, as that word is commonly taken: for his soul was out of his enemies’ reach, who could only kill his body, Luk 12:4.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25:17-18 The psalmist can find no relief (see 4:1; 13:1-2) as his problems go from bad to worse. He associates his anguish with sin, but he does not elaborate on the nature of his sin (see 25:7, 11).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

My grief is increased because of mine enemies’ cruelty.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 17. The troubles of may heart are enlarged] The evils of our captive state, instead of lessening, seem to multiply, and each to be extended.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. In this verse he acknowledges not only that he had to contend outwardly with his enemies and the troubles which they occasioned him, but that he was also afflicted inwardly with sorrow and anguish of heart. It is also necessary to observe the manner of expression which he here employs, and by which he intimates that the weight and number of his trials had accumulated to such an extent that they filled his whole heart, even as a flood of waters bursting every barrier, and extending far and wide, covers a whole country. Now, when we see that the heart of David had sometimes been wholly filled with anguish, we need no longer wonder if at times the violence of temptation overwhelm us; but let us ask with David, that even whilst we are as it were at the point of despair, God would succor us.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(17) The troubles.—The consensus of commentators is for a different division of the Hebrew words.

. . . “Relieve my sore heart,

And release me from my distress.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. The verb rendered are enlarged cannot mean ‘augmented.’ It is all but certain that the consonants should be divided and vocalised differently, giving the appropriate sense, The straitnesses of my heart enlarge thou, and bring me &c.: i.e. relieve my distress. Cp. Psa_18:36; Psa_119:32.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The troubles of my heart are enlarged,.... His enemies being increased, which troubled him; the floods of ungodly men made him afraid; the waters of affliction were come into his soul, and spread themselves, and threatened to overwhelm him: or it may be rendered, as by some, "troubles have enlarged my heart" (h); made him wiser, increased his knowledge and experience; see Psa 119:67; but the former seems better to agree with what follows;

O bring thou me out of my distresses; or "straits" (i); for the enlargement of his troubles was the straitening of his heart; and therefore he applies to the Lord to bring him out of his afflicted circumstances, in which he was penned up, as in a strait place, on every side, and which were such that he could not free himself from; but he knew that God could deliver him.

(h) "dilataverunt cor meum", Vatablus; "reddiderunt cor meum latius", Gussetius, p. 786. (i) "ab angustiis meis", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius; so Musculus, Piscator, Michaelis.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The troubles of my heart - The sorrows which spring upon the heart - particularly from the recollections of sin.

Are enlarged - Have become great. They increased the more he reflected on the sins of his life.

O bring thou me out of my distresses - Alike from my sins, and from the dangers which surround me. These two things, external trouble and the inward consciousness of guilt, are not infrequently combined. Outward trouble has a tendency to bring up the remembrance of past transgressions, and to suggest the inquiry whether the affliction is not a divine visitation for sin. Any one source of sorrow may draw along numerous others in its train. The laws of association are such that when the mind rests on one source of joy, and is made cheerful by that, numerous other blessings will be suggested to increase the joy; and when one great sorrow has taken possession of the soul, all the lesser sorrows of the past life cluster around it, so that we seem to ourselves to be wholly abandoned by God and by man.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The troubles of my heart; my outward troubles are accompanied with grievous torments of my mind and heart for my sins, which have procured them, and thy great displeasure manifested in them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 17. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. When trouble penetrates the heart it is trouble indeed. In the case before us, the heart was swollen with grief like a lake surcharged with water by enormous floods; this is used as an argument for deliverance, and it is a potent one. When the darkest hour of the night arrives we may expect the dawn; when the sea is at its lowest ebb the tide must surely turn; and when our troubles are enlarged to the greatest degree, then we may hopefully pray, O bring thou me out of my distresses.

Ver. 17. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Let no good man be surprised that his affliction is great, and to him of an unaccountable character. It has always been so with God's people. The road to heaven is soaked with the tears and blood of the saints. William S. Plumer.

Ver. 17. O bring thou me out of my distresses. We may not complain of God, but we may complain to God. With submission to his holy will we may earnestly cry for help and deliverance. William S. Plumer.

Ver. 17. Special seasons of trouble and special resort to prayer for special deliverance.

Psalms 25:18*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 17, 18. The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins. The affliction, of whatever kind it may have been, was regarded by David as a punishment sent on him for his sins. Of his sins he was at this time deeply conscious (vers. 7, 11) and deeply repentant. Probably they included his great sin (see the comment on ver. 11).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Hiph. הרחיב signifies to make broad, and as a transitive denominative applied to the mind and heart: to make a broad space = to expand one's self (cf. as to the idea, Lam 2:13, "great as the sea is thy misfortune"), lxx ἐπληθύνθησαν, perhaps originally it was ἐπλατηύνθησαν. Accordingly הרחיבוּ is admissible so far as language is concerned; but since it gives only a poor antithesis to צרות it is to be suspected. The original text undoubtedly was הרחיב וממצוקותי (הרחיב, as in Psa 77:2, or הרחיב, as e.g., in Kg2 8:6): the straits of my heart do Thou enlarge (cf. Psa 119:32; Co2 6:11) and bring me out of my distresses (Hitzig and others).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

17. The troubles of my heart have they enlarged; from my distresses do thou bring me out. The plural of the first clause is indefinite, equivalent to a passive construction in English, are enlarged. (Compare the common version of Luk 12:20.) It does not refer even to his enemies specifically, but to all others, as distinguished from his lonely self, and from his sole deliverer.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The troubles of my heart are enlarged

Here "heart" represents a person's emotions. AT: "I feel more and more troubled" (See: Metonymy)

draw me out from my distress

"bring me out of my distress." This speaks of distress as if it were a place that a person can be brought out of. AT: "rescue me from my distress" or "relieve me of my distress" (See: Metaphor)

my distress

The word "distress" is an abstract noun. AT: "the things that distress me" or "the things that cause me to be afraid" (See: Abstract Nouns)

See my affliction

"Notice my affliction"

my affliction

The abstract noun "affliction" can be stated as a verb. AT: "the things that afflict me" or "how afflicted I am" (See: Abstract Nouns)

my toils

The word "toils" is an abstract noun. AT: "the things that trouble me" (See: Abstract Nouns)

they hate me with cruel hatred

"they hate me cruelly" or "they hate me fiercely"

translationWords

heart

forgive

sin

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.