When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.
Parallel translations
- WEB When I said, “My foot is slipping!” Your loving kindness, Yahweh, held me up.
- BSB If I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your loving devotion, O LORD, supports me.
- NKJV If I say, “My foot slips,” Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up.
- NASB If I should say, “My foot has slipped,” Your faithfulness, Lord, will support me.
- NLT I cried out, “I am slipping!” but your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me.
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
When the psalmist's foot was slipping, God's steadfast love held him up. God's covenant love sustains the believer at the point of collapse.
Overview
The image of a slipping foot pictures the moment of failing strength and faltering faith. At just that point, God's faithful love (chesed) upholds and steadies him. This tender, sustaining grace is the experience of all who are kept by God's power through faith in Christ (1 Peter 1:5; Jude 24).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 121:3He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
- Isa 41:10Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
- Ps 119:116–117Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.
- Ps 37:23–24The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.
- Ps 38:16For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.
- Ps 17:5Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.
- Luke 22:32But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
- 1 Sam 2:9He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
- Ps 73:2But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
- 1 Pet 1:5Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
- John 12:5Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
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 94:18 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.