In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered and set me free.
Parallel translations
- WEB Out of my distress, I called on Yah. Yah answered me with freedom.
- KJV I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.
- NKJV I called on the Lord in distress; The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
- NASB ¶From my distress I called upon the Lord; The Lord answered me and put me in an open space.
- NLT In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free.
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
Out of distress the psalmist called on the Lord and was answered with freedom. It matters because God hears the cries of the afflicted and brings them into liberty.
Overview
The psalmist recalls being hemmed in by trouble and finding spacious freedom in answer to prayer. God's deliverance moves his people from constraint to a broad place. This rescue pattern anticipates the liberty Christ secures, freeing his people from the narrow bondage of sin into the freedom of grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 18:19He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.
- Ps 18:6In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for His help reached His ears.
- Ps 120:1A song of ascents. In my distress I cried to the LORD, and He answered me.
- Ps 107:19Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.
- Ps 130:1–2A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!
- Ps 31:8You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
- 1 Sam 30:6–8And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
- Ps 40:1–3For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.
- Ps 107:13Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.
- Mark 14:31–36But Peter kept insisting, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You.” And all the others said the same thing.
- Ps 116:3–4The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.
- Ps 77:2In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.
- Gen 32:7In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.
- Gen 32:9–11Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’
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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 118:5 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.