I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.
Parallel translations
- WEB Out of my distress, I called on Yah. Yah answered me with freedom.
- BSB In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered and set me free.
- 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 forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
- Ps 18:6In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
- Ps 120:1In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.
- Ps 107:19Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
- Ps 130:1–2Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
- Ps 31:8And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.
- 1 Sam 30:6–8And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
- Ps 40:1–3I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
- Ps 107:13Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
- Mark 14:31–36But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all.
- Ps 116:3–4The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.
- Ps 77:2In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
- Gen 32:7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands;
- Gen 32:9–11And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:
Resources, by level
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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.