¶Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted.
Parallel translations
- WEB Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted.
- KJV Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.
- BSB Turn to me and be gracious, for I am lonely and afflicted.
- NKJV Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted.
- NLT Turn to me and have mercy, for I am alone and in deep distress.
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 pleads for God to turn to him in mercy because he is lonely and afflicted. He cries out from isolation for God's gracious attention.
Overview
Feeling abandoned and oppressed, David asks God to face him and show mercy. The prayer voices the loneliness and affliction common to suffering believers. It expresses confidence that God hears the cry of the desolate, a confidence grounded in the God who in Christ draws near to the lowly and never forsakes those who call on him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 86:16Turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give your strength to your servant. Save the son of your servant.
- Mic 7:19He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
- Dan 9:17Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
- Ps 143:4Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate.
- Ps 69:14–20Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
- Ps 88:15–18I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
- Ps 60:1For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A teaching poem by David, when he fought with Aram Naharaim and with Aram Zobah, and Joab returned, and killed twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.
- Mark 15:33–35When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
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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 25:16 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
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