Bible Strands
Psalms 118:5
In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered and set me free.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — A single voice testifying within a communal liturgy (v.4), speaking from the position of one already delivered, not one still in distress. The moment is retrospective: the crisis is past, the answer is given.
The words — מֵצָר (me.Tsar, "the narrow place") and מֶרְחָב (mer.Chav, "the roomy place") form a deliberate spatial contrast: the speaker moves from constriction to openness. The verse is structured as a before-and-after, not a request.
The thread — The same pattern recurs in Psalms 18:6 (distress → cry → heard from the temple), Psalms 18:19 ("He brought me out into the open"), and Psalms 120:1 (distress → cry → answer). Each instance pairs a narrow situation with a wide outcome.
Why it lands — The verse is past tense throughout; it presents deliverance as a completed fact, not a hope. It asks the reader to hold the call and the answer as one event, not two.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.
Cross-references
- Psalms 18:19 He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.
- Psalms 18:6 In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for His help reached His ears.
- Psalms 120:1 A song of ascents. In my distress I cried to the LORD, and He answered me.
- Psalms 107:19 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.
- Psalms 130:1 A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!
- Psalms 31:8 You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
- 1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of every man grieved for his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
- Psalms 40:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.
- Psalms 107:13 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.
- Psalms 116:3 The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.