to depress literally or figuratively · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
strength
כֹּחִ֗יko.Chi
H3581
vigor · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
way
בַדֶּ֥רֶךְva.De.rekh
H1870
a road (as trodden) · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
shortened
קִצַּ֥רki.Tzar
H7114
to dock off · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
days
יָמָֽיya.Mai
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 21:21 For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
Psalms 89:38-47 But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-12 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, t…
1 Timothy 4:1-3 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines…
2 Timothy 3:1-17 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
Revelation 11:2-19 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tre…
Revelation 12:13-17 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 102:23–end
We may here observe,
I. The imminent danger that the Jewish church was in of being quite extirpated and cut off by the captivity in Babylon (Psa 102:23): He weakened my strength in the way. They were for many ages in the way to the performance of the great promise made to their fathers concerning the Messiah, longing as much for it as ever a traveller did to be at his journey's end. The legal institutions led them in the way; but when the ten tribes were lost in Assyria, and the two almost lost in Babylon, the strength of that nation was weakened, and, in all appearance, its day shortened; for they said, Our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts, Eze 37:11. And then what becomes of the…
He weakened my strength in the way,.... The psalmist here returns to his complaint of his afflictions, weakness, and frailty, which ended Psalm 102:11, after which some hints are given of the latter day glory, which though he despaired of seeing, by reason of his frailty and mortality, yet comforts himself with the eternity and immutability of Christ, and that there would be a succession of the church, a seed of true believers, who would see and enjoy it: as for himself, he says that God (for he is that "He", and not the enemy, as some) had "weakened" his "strength in the way", by afflictions, as the word (e) signifies; which weakens the strength and vigour of the mind, and discourages and d…
Psalm 102:23-28
23. He hath afflicted my strength in the way; and shortened my days. 24. I said, O my God! Cut me not off in the midst of my days: for [155] thy years are from generation to generation. 25. Thou hast aforetime founded the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: and all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: 27. But thou art the same, [156] and thy years shall not fail. [157] 28. The children of thy servants shall dwell, and their seed shall be established before thee.
23. He hath afflicted my strength in the way Some improperly restrict this complaint to th…
The Church Fathers
And this is true. For no one is able to comprehend the works of God altogether. Moreover, the world is the work of God. No one, then, can find out as to this world what is its space from the beginning and to the end, that is to say, the period appointed for it and the limits before determined for it; in view of the fact that God has set the whole world as a realm of ignorance in our hearts. And thus one says, "Declare to me the shortness of my days." In this manner, and for our profit, the end of this world [age]—that is to say, this present life—is a thing of which we are ignorant.
Now as these things are written in the Scriptures, the case is clear, that the saints know that a certain time is measured to every person, but that no one knows the end of that time is plainly intimated by the words of David, "Declare to me the shortness of my days." He desired information about that which he did not know. Accordingly the rich man also, while he thought that he had still a long time to live, heard the words, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" And the Preacher speaks confidently in the Holy Spirit and says, "A person also does not know his time." Wherefore the patriarch Isaac said to his son Esau, "Behold, I am old, and I know not the day of my death."
For although it is hidden and unknown to all, what period of time is allotted to each and how it is allotted, yet every one knows this, that as there is a time for spring and for summer, and for autumn and for winter, so, as it is written, there is a time to die and a time to live. And so the time of the generation that lived in the days of Noah was cut short, and their years were contracted, because the time of all things was at hand. But to Hezekiah were added fifteen years. As God promises to them that serve him truly, "I will fulfill the number of your days," Abraham dies "full of days," and David urgently begged God, saying, "Don't take me away in the midst of my days." And Eliphaz, one of the friends of Job, being assured of this truth, said, "You shall come to your grave like ripe corn, gathered in due time, and like as a shock of corn comes in its season." Solomon, confirming his words, says, "The souls of the unrighteous are untimely taken away." And therefore he exhorts in the book of Ecclesiastes, saying, "Don't be too wicked, neither be hard: why should you die before your time?"
Dictionary and topics
Diseases · Mentioned in scripture: Debility — Mentioned in scripture: Debility
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
On the way (ב as in Psa 110:7) - not "by means of the way" (ב as in Psa 105:18), in connection with which one would expect of find some attributive minuter definition of the way - God hath bowed down his strength (cf. Deu 8:2); it was therefore a troublous, toilsome way which he has been led, together with his people. He has shortened his days, so that he only drags on wearily, and has only a short distance still before him before he is entirely overcome. The Chethb כחו (lxx ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ) may be understood of God's irresistible might, as in Job 23:6; Job 30:18, but in connection with it the designation of the object is felt to be wanting. The introductory אמר (cf. Job 10:2), which announ…
Although the psalmist suffers in the present, he bases his hope for the future on the Lord’s past faithfulness.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 102:23
He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
He weakened my strength in the way. Here the Psalmist comes down again to the mournful string, and pours forth his personal complaint. His sorrow had cast down his spirit, and even caused weakness in his bodily frame, so that he was like a pilgrim who limped along the road, and was ready to lie down and die. He shortened my days. Though he had bright hopes for Jerusalem, he feared that he should have departed this life long before those visions had become realities; he felt that he was pining away and would be a shortlived man. Perhaps this may be our lot, and it will materially help us to be content with it, if we are persuaded that…