Ensure Your servant’s well-being; do not let the arrogant oppress me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Ensure your servant’s well-being. Don’t let the proud oppress me.
- KJV Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.
- NKJV Be surety for Your servant for good; Do not let the proud oppress me.
- NASB Be a guarantor for Your servant for good; Do not let the arrogant oppress me.
- NLT Please guarantee a blessing for me. Don’t let the arrogant oppress 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
He asks God to guarantee his well-being and not let the proud oppress him. He seeks God as the surety who secures his safety.
Overview
The psalmist prays that God would stand as pledge for his good, ensuring he is not crushed by the arrogant. He looks to God to guarantee his welfare against oppression. This idea of a surety points beautifully to Christ, who became the guarantor of a better covenant, securing the eternal welfare of His people (Heb. 7:22; Heb. 9:15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Heb 7:22Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
- Ps 119:21You rebuke the arrogant—the cursed who stray from Your commandments.
- Isa 38:14I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”
- Job 17:3Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?
- Prov 22:26–27Do not be one who gives pledges, who puts up security for debts.
- Phlm 1:18–19But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to my account.
- Ps 36:11Let not the foot of the proud come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
- Gen 43:9I will guarantee his safety. You may hold me personally responsible. If I do not bring him back and set him before you, then may I bear the guilt before you all my life.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 119:122 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.