What is the meaning of Psalm 109:24? My knees are weak from fasting • The psalmist’s knees—symbolic of stability and strength—have literally given way. The language underscores genuine physical frailty, not mere metaphor. • Fasting here is voluntary self-denial before God, echoing Psalm 35:13, “I humbled myself with fasting,” and Joel 2:12, “Return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning”. • The picture is one of earnest, extended prayer. Like Ezra 8:23, fasting accompanies urgent petition. • Weak knees also point to utter dependence on the Lord, paralleling Hebrews 12:12’s call to “strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees”. The psalmist confesses he has no strength left but trusts God will provide it. and my body grows lean and gaunt • The words paint a vivid portrait of emaciation. The psalmist’s frame has wasted away, reflecting prolonged distress. Compare Psalm 102:4-5, “My heart is afflicted and withered like grass… my bones cling to my flesh,” and Job 19:20, “My skin and flesh cling to my bones”. • This leanness is both the result of fasting and the pressure of relentless opposition (see Psalm 109:1-5). Physical suffering displays the depth of affliction, much like Paul’s catalog of hardships in 2 Corinthians 11:27, “in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst, frequently without food”. • Yet even this gaunt condition testifies that God sustains the psalmist’s life. Psalm 22:14-17 shows a similar tension: extreme weakness paired with unwavering faith that God sees and delivers. summary Psalm 109:24 presents a literal snapshot of the psalmist’s worn-out body—knees buckling from prolonged fasting, flesh reduced to skin and bone—highlighting deep humility, earnest prayer, and total dependence on God. His physical depletion magnifies the Lord’s sustaining grace and sets the stage for divine vindication that follows in the psalm. |
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