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?
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.
- BSB For You have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.
- 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 thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
- Job 33:30To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
- Rev 21:23–24And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
- Ps 145:14The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
- Ps 49:15But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.
- Isa 2:5O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
- Ps 17:5Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.
- 1 Th 1:10And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
- Gen 17:1And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
- Isa 38:3And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
- Ps 94:18When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.
- Ps 86:12–13I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.
- John 8:12Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
- John 12:35–36Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
- Jas 5:20Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
- 1 Sam 2:9He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
- Heb 2:15And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
- Eph 5:8–14For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
- 2 Cor 1:10Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
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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 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
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