My enemies did their best to kill me, but the Lord rescued me.
Parallel translations
- WEB You pushed me back hard, to make me fall, but Yahweh helped me.
- KJV Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD 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.
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 140:4Yahweh, keep me from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent men who have determined to trip my feet.
- Ps 86:17Show me a sign of your goodness, that those who hate me may see it, and be shamed, because you, Yahweh, have helped me, and comforted me.
- Mic 7:8Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.
- Ps 18:17–18He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
- Matt 4:1–11Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
- 1 Sam 25:29Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies, as from the hollow of a sling.
- 2 Sam 17:1–3Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.
- Ps 56:1–3For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A poem by David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.
- 1 Sam 20:3David swore moreover, and said, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, ‘Don’t let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved:’ but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”
- Heb 2:14Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
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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 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.