Then my enemies will turn back on the day when I call; This I know, that God is for me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me.
- KJV When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
- BSB Then my enemies will retreat on the day I cry for help. By this I will know that God is on my side.
- NKJV When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me.
- NLT My enemies will retreat when I call to you for help. This I know: God is on my side!
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 is sure his enemies will retreat when he calls, for God is for him. It expresses confident assurance of God's favor.
Overview
David trusts that the moment he prays, his foes will be turned back, because God is on his side. The settled conviction 'God is for me' is the heart of his courage. Paul echoes this very assurance, declaring that if God is for us, no one can stand against us (Romans 8:31).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Rom 8:31What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
- Ps 118:6Yahweh is on my side. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
- Ps 102:2Don’t hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call.
- Ps 46:11Yahweh of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
- Isa 8:9–10Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered!
- Ps 118:11–13They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me. In Yahweh’s name I indeed cut them off.
- Ps 9:3When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish in your presence.
- Jer 33:3‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know.’
- Ps 46:7Yahweh of Armies is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
- John 18:6When therefore he said to them, “I am he,” they went backward, and fell to the ground.
- Ps 27:2When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
- Ps 18:38–42I will strike them through, so that they will not be able to rise. They shall fall under my feet.
- Exod 17:9–11Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God’s rod in my hand.”
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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 56:9 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.