In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
Parallel translations
- WEB As for me, I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before your eyes.” Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.
- KJV For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes: nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
- NKJV For I said in my haste, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried out to You.
- NASB As for me, I said in my alarm, “I am cut off from Your eyes”; Nevertheless You heard the sound of my pleadings When I called to You for help.
- NLT In panic I cried out, “I am cut off from the Lord!” But you heard my cry for mercy and answered my call for help.
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 admits he hastily thought he was cut off from God, yet God heard his pleas. It confesses weak faith met by God's faithfulness.
Overview
In alarm David assumed God had abandoned him, but his fear proved unfounded when God answered his cry. The verse honestly records a lapse of faith and God's gracious response. It comforts believers that God hears even when, in distress, they wrongly feel forgotten.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 116:11In my alarm I said, “All men are liars!”
- Heb 5:7During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence.
- Jonah 2:7–9As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple.
- Ezek 37:11Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
- Ps 88:16Your wrath has swept over me; Your terrors have destroyed me.
- Ps 6:9The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.
- Job 35:14How much less, then, when you say that you do not see Him, that your case is before Him and you must wait for Him,
- 1 Sam 23:26Saul was proceeding along one side of the mountain, and David and his men along the other side. Even though David was hurrying to get away, Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them.
- Isa 49:14But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; the Lord has forgotten me!”
- Jonah 2:4At this, I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’
- Lam 3:54–55The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.
- Isa 6:5Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
- Isa 38:10–12I said, “In the prime of my life I must go through the gates of Sheol and be deprived of the remainder of my years.”
- 1 Sam 27:1David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
- 2 Chr 33:11–13So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
- Ps 31:17O LORD, let me not be ashamed, for I have called on You. Let the wicked be put to shame; let them lie silent in Sheol.
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 31:22 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.