But I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.
Parallel translations
- WEB But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.
- BSB But I am in pain and distress; let Your salvation protect me, O God.
- NKJV But I am poor and sorrowful; Let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
- NASB ¶But I am afflicted and in pain; May Your salvation, God, set me safely on high.
- NLT I am suffering and in pain. Rescue me, O God, by your saving power.
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
In contrast to his enemies, David, in pain and distress, asks God's salvation to lift him up. It returns from judgment to humble dependence on God.
Overview
After the imprecations, David turns back to his own need, confessing his affliction and pleading for God's salvation to set him on high. He casts himself wholly on God to rescue and exalt him. This humble reliance on divine salvation rather than self foreshadows the gospel pattern, where the lowly are lifted up by the saving power of God in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 91:14–16Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
- Ps 40:17But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
- Ps 70:5But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.
- Ps 109:22For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
- Ps 20:1The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;
- Ps 18:48He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man.
- Phil 2:9–11Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
- Eph 1:21–22Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
- 2 Cor 8:9For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
- Isa 53:2–3For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
- Ps 109:31For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.
- Ps 59:1Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.
- Ps 22:27–31All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
- Ps 89:26–27He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
- Matt 8:20And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
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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 69:29 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.