Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me.
Parallel translations
- WEB You pushed me back hard, to make me fall, but Yahweh helped me.
- BSB I was pushed so hard I was falling, but the LORD helped me.
- NKJV You pushed me violently, that I might fall, But the Lord helped me.
- NASB You pushed me violently so that I was falling, But the Lord helped me.
- NLT My enemies did their best to kill me, but the Lord rescued me.
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
Though pushed hard to make him fall, the Lord helped him. It matters because God upholds his people at the very point of collapse.
Overview
Addressing his attacker, the psalmist admits he was nearly toppled, but God intervened to sustain him. Deliverance comes precisely when human strength gives way. This rescue at the brink mirrors the gospel, where God's help meets us in our helplessness through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 140:4Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.
- Ps 86:17Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.
- Mic 7:8Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
- Ps 18:17–18He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.
- Matt 4:1–11Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
- 1 Sam 25:29Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.
- 2 Sam 17:1–3Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
- Ps 56:1–3Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.
- 1 Sam 20:3And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.
- Heb 2:14Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
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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 118:13 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.