¶Your God has commanded your strength; Show Yourself strong, God, You who acted in our behalf.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your God has commanded your strength. Strengthen, God, that which you have done for us.
- KJV Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.
- BSB Summon Your power, O God; show Your strength, O God, which You have exerted on our behalf.
- NKJV Your God has commanded your strength; Strengthen, O God, what You have done for us.
- NLT Summon your might, O God. Display your power, O God, as you have in the past.
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 prays that God would display and strengthen the power he has already shown on Israel's behalf. It teaches us to ask God to sustain what he has begun.
Overview
Recognizing that all Israel's strength comes from God's command, David pleads for the Lord to confirm and uphold his past saving work. True security rests not in human might but in God's ongoing power. The prayer that God complete what he has started echoes the gospel confidence that he who began a good work will bring it to completion (Philippians 1:6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 138:8Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me; your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.
- Ps 71:3Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
- Phil 1:6being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
- Isa 40:31But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
- 2 Cor 12:9–10He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.
- Ps 42:8Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: a prayer to the God of my life.
- Eph 3:17–20that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
- 2 Th 1:11To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power;
- Ps 44:4You are my King, God. Command victories for Jacob!
- John 5:8–9Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”
- Acts 3:6–8But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”
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 68:28 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.