¶Your mercy, Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
- KJV Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
- BSB Your loving devotion, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds.
- NKJV Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
- NLT Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.
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
In sharp contrast to the wicked, God's loving kindness and faithfulness fill the heavens and skies. His covenant love is vast beyond measure.
Overview
David lifts his eyes from human corruption to the immensity of God's steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness, picturing them reaching to the heavens. The contrast is deliberate: against the small, dark world of the sinner stands the boundless mercy of God. This covenant faithfulness finds its fullest expression in Christ, in whom God's love and truth meet (John 1:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 100:5For Yahweh is good. His loving kindness endures forever, his faithfulness to all generations.
- Ps 108:4For your loving kindness is great above the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
- Ps 103:11For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him.
- Ps 57:10For your great loving kindness reaches to the heavens, and your truth to the skies.
- Ps 89:2I indeed declare, “Love stands firm forever. You established the heavens. Your faithfulness is in them.”
- Heb 6:18–20that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to take hold of the hope set before us.
- Ps 92:2to proclaim your loving kindness in the morning, and your faithfulness every night,
- Matt 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
- Isa 55:7–9Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
- Ps 52:1For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, “David has come to Ahimelech’s house.” Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God’s loving kindness endures continually.
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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 36:5 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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