For strangers have risen against me And violent men have sought my life; They have not set God before them. Selah
Parallel translations
- WEB For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah.
- KJV For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah.
- BSB For strangers rise up against me, and ruthless men seek my life—men with no regard for God. Selah
- NKJV For strangers have risen up against me, And oppressors have sought after my life; They have not set God before them. Selah
- NLT For strangers are attacking me; violent people are trying to kill me. They care nothing for God. Interlude
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
Violent strangers seek David's life because they have no regard for God. It traces hostility against the godly to the enemies' disregard of God.
Overview
David names his threat: ruthless men pursuing his soul who do not set God before them. Their godlessness fuels their violence. The verse acknowledges real danger while implicitly contrasting David's God-centered life with his foes' practical atheism.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 86:14God, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, and they don’t hold regard for you before them.
- Ps 36:1For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of Yahweh. An inner sanctuary is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: “There is no fear of God before his eyes.”
- John 16:3They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.
- Ps 53:4Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?
- Ps 40:14Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.
- Ps 22:16For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.
- Ps 16:8I have set Yahweh always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
- Job 19:13–15“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
- Ps 59:3–5For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.
- Matt 27:20–23Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes to ask for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
- Ps 69:8I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.
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 54:3 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.