Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:
Parallel translations
- WEB Help me, Yahweh, my God. Save me according to your loving kindness;
- BSB Help me, O LORD my God; save me according to Your loving devotion.
- ESV Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to your steadfast love!
- NKJV Help me, O Lord my God! Oh, save me according to Your mercy,
- NASB ¶Help me, Lord my God; Save me according to Your mercy.
- NLT Help me, O Lord my God! Save me because of your unfailing love.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David cries for help and salvation grounded in God's steadfast love. He looks entirely to the Lord his God for rescue.
Overview
The plea 'Help me' and 'Save me' rests again on God's 'loving kindness' (chesed), not on David's worth. This is the posture of saving faith, appealing to grace alone. It anticipates the gospel cry answered fully in Jesus, whose name means 'Yahweh saves' (Matthew 1:21).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ps 119:86All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help thou me.
- Heb 5:7Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
- Ps 57:1Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.
- Ps 69:13But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
- Ps 69:16Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.
- Ps 40:12For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 109:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.