Psalm 6:7

Psalm 6:7, in plain English

David's grief is so consuming it's affecting his vision—his eyes are failing from weeping and growing dim. He's using physical descriptions to show how completely sorrow has taken over his life.

Why it's here

He's still describing his ongoing suffering, adding the detail that his enemies are involved in causing this pain. His vision is literally weakening from tears and stress, but metaphorically, his ability to see clearly—to see hope, to see God's presence—is being obscured by grief and the threat of his foes. Both the internal and external pressures are crushing him.

Who's speaking

David, continuing to lay out the full extent of his suffering for God to witness.

Where it sits in the story

Throughout Scripture, sight and blindness are spiritual metaphors. David's physical blindness from tears mirrors a deeper spiritual reality—suffering can temporarily blind us to God's presence and faithfulness. But naming it honestly, as David does here, is the first step toward restoration.

The scholarly reading

The psalmist's physical manifestation of grief extends to his vision itself—his eyes are failing from weeping and growing dim, perhaps suggesting both tears obscuring sight and the spiritual darkness accompanying despair.

Language and setting

The verb 'fail' (עשש, ashasah) indicates deterioration or wasting; combined with 'grow dim' (קדרה, qadrah—literally 'become dark'), the language accumulates images of loss of light and clarity. In Hebrew thought, the eyes were not merely organs of perception but the seat of understanding and spiritual vision; their failure suggests cognitive and spiritual obscuration. The phrase 'because of all my foes' reintroduces an element absent since verse 1—the implication that interpersonal hostility compounds the physical and spiritual suffering. Medieval exegete Abraham ibn Ezra connected this to the psychological reality that enemies' antagonism magnifies one's sense of isolation and vulnerability.

Voice

The supplicant, whose suffering now encompasses sensory diminishment, introducing the social dimension of his distress.

Significance

The mention of foes anticipates the psalm's ultimate movement toward vindication and the enemy's shame; this verse establishes that the supplicant is not isolated in private suffering but embattled in a social context where adversaries compound affliction.

5For there is no mention of You in death; who can praise You from Sheol?

6I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.

7My eyes fail from grief; they grow dim because of all my foes.

8Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the LORD has heard my weeping.

9The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.

Read all of Psalm 6 — A prayer soaked in weeping. David's bed is drenched with tears — but even drowning in grief, he expects God to hear.