Hear my cry for mercy when I call to You for help, when I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.
Parallel translations
- WEB Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.
- KJV Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle.
- NKJV Hear the voice of my supplications When I cry to You, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.
- NASB Hear the sound of my pleadings when I cry to You for help, When I raise my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.
- NLT Listen to my prayer for mercy as I cry out to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary.
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 asks God to hear his pleas as he lifts his hands toward God's holy sanctuary. It pictures earnest, reverent prayer directed to God's presence.
Overview
Lifting hands toward the Most Holy Place expresses both supplication and faith that God meets His people at His dwelling. David orients his prayer to where God's atoning presence resides. For believers, that orientation is now to Christ, in whom God's mercy seat is fully revealed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ps 138:2I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your loving devotion and Your faithfulness; You have exalted Your name and Your word above all else.
- Ps 141:2May my prayer be set before You like incense, my uplifted hands like the evening offering.
- Ps 140:6I say to the LORD, “You are my God.” Hear, O LORD, my cry for help.
- 1 Tim 2:8Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or dissension.
- Ps 134:2Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the LORD!
- Ps 5:7But I will enter Your house by the abundance of Your loving devotion; in reverence I will bow down toward Your holy temple.
- Dan 6:10Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
- Ps 143:6I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
- 2 Chr 6:13Now Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had placed it in the middle of the courtyard. He stood on it, knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven,
- 1 Kgs 8:28–30Yet regard the prayer and plea of Your servant, O LORD my God, so that You may hear the cry and the prayer that Your servant is praying before You today.
- 1 Kgs 8:38then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—
- Ps 125:5But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.
- Lam 2:19Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.
- Ps 63:4So I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift my hands.
- 1 Kgs 8:6–8Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.
- 1 Kgs 6:19Solomon also prepared the inner sanctuary within the temple to set the ark of the covenant of the LORD there.
- 1 Kgs 6:22–23So he overlaid with gold the whole interior of the temple, until everything was completely finished. He also overlaid with gold the entire altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary.
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 28:2 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.