Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake.
Parallel translations
- WEB Make your face to shine on your servant. Save me in your loving kindness.
- BSB Make Your face shine on Your servant; save me by Your loving devotion.
- 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 4:6There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
- Ps 6:4Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
- Ps 80:3Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
- Dan 9:9To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
- Rom 9:15For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
- Ps 67:1God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
- Num 6:25–26The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
- Eph 1:6–7To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
- Dan 9:17–18Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake.
- Eph 2:4–7But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
- Ps 30:7LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.
- Ps 80:19Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
- Ps 51:1Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
- Ps 80:7Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
- Rom 9:23And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
- Ps 106:45And he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his mercies.
Resources, by level
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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.