What Does Psalm 73:26 Mean in the King James?
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The heart that reaches its end is not asked to become its own strength: God is named as its rock and its share through the ages.
THE MEANING
Your flesh and heart can be spent without leaving you groundless. God is the rock of the heart itself, and your portion through the ages. The verse holds bodily limit and lasting belonging together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A failing body or heart means you have lost your ground; the verse names God as the rock of that very heart.
THE ROOT
צוּר
tsur
GROWS FROM
צור
Rock; a solid mass that can serve as secure ground or refuge.
The word rendered “strength” is literally “rock.” The verse does not deny that the heart fails; it names a solid ground beneath that very heart, rather than requiring the heart to generate its own strength.
ALSO GROWS
tsur: Rock.
צוּר
This is the concrete image beneath the verse’s language of strength.
tsuri: My rock.
צוּרִי
Psalm 18:2 uses the same word with “my,” making the rock a source of personal refuge.
כָּלָה
kalah
GROWS FROM
כלה
Be spent, be finished, come to an end, or be consumed.
“faileth” in this verse is kalah. The Hebrew verb carries the force of being spent or consumed, not merely feeling weak. The rock image follows without erasing that limit: what has reached its end is still held by something solid.
ALSO GROWS
kalah: Be finished, spent, or come to an end.
כָּלָה
This is the sense carried by the verse’s description of flesh and heart reaching their limit.
killah: Finish, consume, or bring to an end.
כִּלָּה
This active form from the same root sharpens the image of something being used up.
חֶלְקִי
chelqi
GROWS FROM
חלק
Divide or apportion; a portion is a share assigned from the whole.
“My portion” is share and inheritance language. The verse names God not only as support when strength is spent, but as the speaker’s enduring share through the ages.
ALSO GROWS
cheleq: A share or portion.
חֵלֶק
This is the noun in the verse, marked as “my” portion.
chalaq: Divide, apportion, or assign a share.
חָלַק
The related verb reveals the allotment beneath the image: God is the share that belongs to the speaker.
THE PATTERN
What endures through weakness is the ground or power that holds beyond the failing self.
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.THE THREAD
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.Both verses use צוּר (tsur, rock): Psalm 18 calls the LORD “my rock,” and Psalm 73 names God as the rock of the heart that fails. The shared root makes strength a solid place to stand, not an inner reserve the heart must produce.
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