Limitless Word
Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!
Psalms 69:17 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
  • BSB Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me quickly!
  • NKJV And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in trouble; Hear me speedily.
  • NASB And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in distress; answer me quickly.
  • NLT Don’t hide from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in deep trouble!

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 begs God not to hide his face but to answer quickly in his distress. It expresses urgent longing for God's nearness in trouble.

Overview

In his anguish David pleads that God would not withdraw his favorable presence but respond speedily. The hiding of God's face represents the felt absence of God's help, the believer's deepest fear. Christ on the cross experienced the ultimate hiding of the Father's face so that those who trust him would never be finally forsaken.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 13

  • Ps 27:9Don’t hide your face from me. Don’t put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Don’t abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation.
  • 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.
  • Matt 27:46About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
  • Ps 143:9Deliver me, Yahweh, from my enemies. I flee to you to hide me.
  • Ps 70:1For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder. Hurry, God, to deliver me. Come quickly to help me, Yahweh.
  • Ps 13:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
  • Ps 44:24Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
  • Ps 66:14which my lips promised, and my mouth spoke, when I was in distress.
  • Ps 40:13Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh.
  • Ps 143:7Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don’t hide your face from me, so that I don’t become like those who go down into the pit.
  • Ps 22:24For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hidden his face from him; but when he cried to him, he heard.
  • Matt 26:38Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.”
  • Job 7:21Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 69:17YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 69:17 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.