Be surety for Your servant for good; Do not let the proud 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.
- BSB Ensure Your servant’s well-being; do not let the arrogant 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 7:22By so much, Jesus has become the collateral of a better covenant.
- Ps 119:21You have rebuked the proud who are cursed, who wander from your commandments.
- Isa 38:14I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
- Job 17:3“Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?
- Prov 22:26–27Don’t you be one of those who strike hands, of those who are collateral for debts.
- Phlm 1:18–19But if he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, put that to my account.
- Ps 36:11Don’t let the foot of pride come against me. Don’t let the hand of the wicked drive me away.
- Gen 43:9I’ll be collateral for him. From my hand will you require him. If I don’t bring him to you, and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.