O Israel, trust the Lord! He is your helper and your shield.
Parallel translations
- WEB Israel, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield.
- KJV O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
- BSB O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and shield.
- NKJV O Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.
- NASB ¶Israel, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.
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
Israel is summoned to trust in Yahweh, who is their help and shield. It matters because the living God is the only secure refuge.
Overview
Having exposed idols, the psalm calls the covenant people to active trust in the Lord who protects and defends. 'Help and shield' pictures God as both rescuer and guardian. This invitation grounds faith not in feelings but in God's proven character, anticipating the gospel call to rest wholly in the God who shields his people in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 62:8Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah.
- Ps 37:3Trust in Yahweh, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture.
- Prov 30:5“Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
- Ps 118:2–4Let Israel now say that his loving kindness endures forever.
- Ps 135:19–20House of Israel, praise Yahweh! House of Aaron, praise Yahweh!
- Ps 33:20–21Our soul has waited for Yahweh. He is our help and our shield.
- Deut 33:29You are happy, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh, the shield of your help, the sword of your excellency? Your enemies will submit themselves to you. You will tread on their high places.”
- Ps 146:5–6Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God:
- Eph 1:12to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ:
- Ps 84:11For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.
- Exod 19:5Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;
- Ps 130:7Israel, hope in Yahweh, for with Yahweh there is loving kindness. With him is abundant redemption.
- Jer 17:17–18Don’t be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.
- Ps 125:1A Song of Ascents. Those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion, which can’t be moved, but remains forever.
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 115:9 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.