Give us help from trouble, For the help of man is useless.
Parallel translations
- WEB Give us help against the adversary, for the help of man is vain.
- KJV Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
- BSB Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.
- NASB Oh give us help against the enemy, For rescue by man is worthless.
- NLT Oh, please help us against our enemies, for all human help is useless.
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 pleads for God's help against the foe, confessing that human help is worthless. It locates true deliverance in God alone.
Overview
David asks God for aid, plainly stating that the help of man is vain. He renounces reliance on human strength and casts himself wholly on God. This confession reflects the consistent biblical conviction that salvation belongs to the Lord, not to human power.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 146:3Don’t put your trust in princes, each a son of man in whom there is no help.
- Ps 108:12Give us help against the enemy, for the help of man is vain.
- Ps 130:8He will redeem Israel from all their sins.
- Ps 124:1–3A Song of Ascents. By David. If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, let Israel now say,
- Isa 30:7For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still.
- Ps 62:1For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm by David. My soul rests in God alone. My salvation is from him.
- Isa 31:3Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.
- Ps 25:22Redeem Israel, God, out all of his troubles.
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 60:11 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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