May he reign under God’s protection forever. May your unfailing love and faithfulness watch over him.
Parallel translations
- WEB He shall be enthroned in God’s presence forever. Appoint your loving kindness and truth, that they may preserve him.
- KJV He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.
- BSB May he sit enthroned in God’s presence forever; appoint Your loving devotion and Your faithfulness to guard him.
- NKJV He shall abide before God forever. Oh, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him!
- NASB He will sit enthroned before God forever; Appoint faithfulness and truth that they may watch over him.
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 that the king be enthroned forever in God's presence, preserved by God's love and faithfulness. It seeks a kingship sustained by God's covenant character.
Overview
David prays for a reign established eternally before God, guarded by steadfast love and truth. No earthly king fully attains this, which points the promise forward. It is fulfilled in Christ, who is enthroned forever in God's presence and preserved by the Father's faithfulness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 40:11Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
- Gen 24:27He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his loving kindness and his truth toward my master. As for me, Yahweh has led me on the way to the house of my master’s relatives.”
- Isa 9:6–7For to us a child is born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
- Luke 1:33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.”
- Ps 57:3He will send from heaven, and save me, he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah. God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.
- Ps 41:12As for me, you uphold me in my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.
- Luke 1:54–55He has given help to Israel, his servant, that he might remember mercy,
- Heb 9:24For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
- Mic 7:20You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
- Ps 43:3Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, To your tents.
- Prov 20:28Love and faithfulness keep the king safe. His throne is sustained by love.
- Gen 32:10I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I crossed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.
- Heb 7:21–25(for they indeed have been made priests without an oath), but he with an oath by him that says of him, “The Lord swore and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’”
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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 61:7 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.