For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,
The verse expresses profound grief, with sorrow so great that ashes serve as food and tears mingle with drink. It pictures extreme sorrow and distress through eating ashes as bread and mixing weeping into what is drunk. It portrays David's deep grief as a sorrow so constant that it accompanied his daily life, mingling tears with drink at every meal.
It expresses the sorrow and affliction of the Hebrew captives during the Babylonian captivity, when persecution and distress were greatest. That affliction belongs to the latter part of the exile under Belshazzar. It is part of a plea for mercy that every true believer may adopt as his own. It applies to God's children as they grieve and pray with tears for their children and other loved ones to be saved.
The verse expresses profound grief, with sorrow so great that ashes serve as food and tears mingle with drink. It pictures extreme sorrow and distress through eating ashes as bread and mixing weeping into what is drunk. It portrays David's deep grief as a sorrow so constant that it accompanied his daily life, mingling tears with drink at every meal.
It expresses the sorrow and affliction of the Hebrew captives during the Babylonian captivity, when persecution and distress were greatest. That affliction belongs to the latter part of the exile under Belshazzar. It is part of a plea for mercy that every true believer may adopt as his own. It applies to God's children as they grieve and pray with tears for their children and other loved ones to be saved.