Return, Yahweh. Deliver my soul, and save me for your loving kindness’ sake.
Parallel translations
- KJV Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
- BSB Turn, O LORD, and deliver my soul; save me because of Your loving devotion.
- NKJV Return, O Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake!
- NASB ¶Return, Lord, rescue my soul; Save me because of Your mercy.
- NLT Return, O Lord, and rescue me. Save me because of your unfailing love.
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 asks God to turn back to him and deliver him for the sake of His steadfast love. He appeals to God's mercy, not his own merit.
Overview
David pleads for God to 'return,' as if the Lord had withdrawn, and to rescue him on the basis of 'loving kindness'—God's covenant faithfulness. The ground of his hope is not what he deserves but what God is. This steadfast love is the same mercy that reaches its fullest expression in the salvation accomplished by Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Dan 9:18My God, turn your ear, and hear; open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name: for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake.
- Ps 17:13Arise, Yahweh, confront him. Cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword;
- Ps 116:4Then I called on Yahweh’s name: “Yahweh, I beg you, deliver my soul.”
- Eph 2:7–8that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;
- Ps 22:20Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
- Ps 90:13Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
- Ps 121:7Yahweh will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul.
- Ps 80:14Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,
- Mal 3:7From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says Yahweh of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
- Ps 116:8For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
- Ps 86:13For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
- Ps 120:2Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.
- Ps 25:7Don’t remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Remember me according to your loving kindness, for your goodness’ sake, Yahweh.
- Eph 1:6to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
- Ps 79:8–9Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need.
- Isa 38:17Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
- Ps 69:13But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.
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 6:4 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.