Attend to my cry, For I am brought very low; Deliver me from my persecutors, For they are stronger than I.
Parallel translations
- WEB Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need. deliver me from my persecutors, For they are stronger than me.
- KJV Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.
- BSB Listen to my cry, for I am brought quite low. Rescue me from my pursuers, for they are too strong for me.
- NASB “Give Your attention to my cry, For I have been brought very low; Rescue me from my persecutors, For they are too strong for me.
- NLT Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for 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
David begs God to hear his cry, for he is brought low and his persecutors are too strong. It admits weakness while appealing to God's strength.
Overview
David confesses both his desperate need and the superior power of his enemies, throwing himself wholly on God. Acknowledging weakness is the doorway to dependence on divine strength. God's power is made perfect in weakness, supremely displayed when Christ conquered through the apparent defeat of the cross (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 79:8Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need.
- Ps 116:6Yahweh preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me.
- Ps 136:23Who remembered us in our low estate; for his loving kindness endures forever;
- Ps 17:1A Prayer by David. Hear, Yahweh, my righteous plea; Give ear to my prayer, that doesn’t go out of deceitful lips.
- Ps 3:1A Psalm by David, when he fled from Absalom his son. Yahweh, how my adversaries have increased! Many are those who rise up against me.
- Ps 59:3For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.
- Rom 8:37No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
- Ps 143:7Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.
- Ps 57:3–4He will send from heaven, and save me, he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah. God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.
- Rom 8:33Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies.
- Ps 38:19But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous.
- Ps 18:17He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
- 1 Sam 24:14Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea?
- Ps 44:24–26Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
- Ps 143:3For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.
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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 142:6 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.