For You have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you have delivered my soul from death, and prevented my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
- KJV For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
- NKJV For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, That I may walk before God In the light of the living?
- NASB For You have saved my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, So that I may walk before God In the light of the living.
- NLT For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light.
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 thanks God for delivering his soul from death so he can walk in the light of life before God. It closes the psalm with grateful testimony to salvation.
Overview
David celebrates that God has rescued him from death and kept him from stumbling, that he might live in God's presence. To 'walk before God in the light of the living' is the goal of deliverance: ongoing fellowship with him. This anticipates the fuller life and light Christ gives to those he saves (John 8:12).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Ps 116:8–9For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
- Job 33:30to bring back his soul from the Pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.
- Rev 21:23–24And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.
- Ps 145:14The LORD upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.
- Ps 49:15But God will redeem my life from Sheol, for He will surely take me to Himself. Selah
- Isa 2:5Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.
- Ps 17:5My steps have held to Your paths; my feet have not slipped.
- 1 Th 1:10and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.
- Gen 17:1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.
- Isa 38:3saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
- Ps 94:18If I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your loving devotion, O LORD, supports me.
- Ps 86:12–13I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify Your name forever.
- John 8:12Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”
- John 12:35–36Then Jesus told them, “For a little while longer, the Light will be among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.
- Jas 5:20consider this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
- 1 Sam 2:9He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness; for by his own strength shall no man prevail.
- Heb 2:15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
- Eph 5:8–14For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
- 2 Cor 1:10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 56:13 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.