I called on the Lord in distress; The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
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.
- BSB In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered and set me free.
- 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 also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
- Ps 18:6In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
- Ps 120:1A Song of Ascents. In my distress, I cried to Yahweh. He answered me.
- Ps 107:19Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, he saves them out of their distresses.
- Ps 130:1–2A Song of Ascents. Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh.
- Ps 31:8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.
- 1 Sam 30:6–8David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the souls of all the people were grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; but David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.
- Ps 40:1–3For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry.
- Ps 107:13Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
- Mark 14:31–36But he spoke all the more, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.” They all said the same thing.
- Ps 116:3–4The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.
- Ps 77:2In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.
- Gen 32:7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;
- Gen 32:9–11Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,’
Resources, by level
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 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.