Make Your face shine on Your servant; save me by Your loving devotion.
Parallel translations
- WEB Make your face to shine on your servant. Save me in your loving kindness.
- KJV Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake.
- NKJV Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies’ sake.
- NASB Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your faithfulness.
- NLT Let your favor shine on your servant. In your unfailing love, rescue 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 asks God to make His face shine on His servant and save him in steadfast love. It seeks God's gracious favor and salvation.
Overview
Echoing the priestly blessing, David prays for the light of God's favor to rest on him. His salvation rests on God's loving kindness, not his own worth. The shining face of God is fully revealed in Christ, in whom God's gracious favor dawns on His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 4:6Many ask, “Who can show us the good?” Shine the light of Your face upon us, O LORD.
- Ps 6:4Turn, O LORD, and deliver my soul; save me because of Your loving devotion.
- Ps 80:3Restore us, O God, and cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- Dan 9:9To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him
- Rom 9:15For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
- Ps 67:1For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song. May God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, Selah
- Num 6:25–26may the LORD cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
- Eph 1:6–7to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.
- Dan 9:17–18So now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your desolate sanctuary.
- Eph 2:4–7But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
- Ps 30:7O LORD, You favored me; You made my mountain stand strong. When You hid Your face, I was dismayed.
- Ps 80:19Restore us, O LORD God of Hosts; cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- Ps 51:1For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
- Ps 80:7Restore us, O God of Hosts, and cause Your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.
- Rom 9:23What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—
- Ps 106:45And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 31:16 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
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.