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Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.
Psalms 27:10 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB When my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up.
  • KJV When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
  • NKJV When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.
  • NASB For my father and my mother have forsaken me, But the Lord will take me up.
  • NLT Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close.

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

Even if his own father and mother abandon him, David trusts that the Lord will take him up. It assures believers of God's unfailing care when human support fails.

Overview

David names the closest human bonds to magnify God's superior faithfulness. The verse does not assume his parents had forsaken him but uses the most extreme case to highlight God's covenant loyalty. This points to the Father who receives the orphan and adopts us as sons through Christ.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 9

  • Isa 49:15“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!
  • Isa 40:11He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes.
  • John 16:32“Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
  • Matt 10:36A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
  • 2 Tim 4:16At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.
  • Ps 69:8I have become a stranger to my brothers and a foreigner to my mother’s sons,
  • Matt 10:21–22Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death.
  • John 9:35When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, He found the man and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
  • 2 Sam 16:11Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son, my own flesh and blood, seeks my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone and let him curse me, for the LORD has told him so.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 27:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 27:10 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.