I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.
- BSB Still I am certain to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
- NKJV I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.
- NASB I certainly believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.
- NLT Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.
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 affirms his confidence that he will see God's goodness in the land of the living. It declares faith's firm hope amid trouble.
Overview
Against fear and false witnesses, David clings to assured expectation of experiencing God's goodness while still alive. The 'land of the living' contrasts with the pit of death he dreaded. This confidence rests on God's character and ultimately on the resurrection hope secured in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- 2 Cor 4:16For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
- Ps 142:5I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
- 2 Cor 4:8–14We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
- Ps 56:3What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
- Ps 31:19Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
- Ps 56:13For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
- Ps 42:5Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
- Ps 116:9–11I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
- Job 28:13Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
- Eph 2:8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
- 2 Cor 4:1Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
- Jer 11:19But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
- Ezek 26:20When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living;
- Isa 38:19The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
- Job 33:30To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
- Isa 38:11I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.
- Ps 52:5God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
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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 27:13 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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