Bible Strands
Psalms 18:27
For You save an afflicted people, but You humble those with haughty eyes.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David addresses God directly, recounting his deliverance from enemies and attributing his victory to divine intervention. The psalm functions as a royal thanksgiving song celebrating how God responds to human posture.
The words — עָנִי ('a.Ni) literally means "afflicted" or "humble," and תַּשְׁפִּיל (tash.Pil) means "you bring low" or "you humble." These terms establish the contrast between God's rescue of the lowly and His opposition to the proud.
The thread — This dynamic appears in Isaiah 66:2, where God looks to the one who is humble and contrite, and Isaiah 57:15, where the exalted God dwells with the crushed in spirit. James 2:5 reinforces the pattern by noting God's choice of the poor in the world to be rich in faith.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine favor aligns with humility rather than self-exaltation. It requires the reader to abandon prideful self-reliance and accept that God's saving action is directed toward the lowly.
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
For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 66:2 Has not My hand made all these things? And so they came into being,” declares the LORD. “This is the one I will esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at My word.
- Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.
- James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?
- 2 Samuel 22:28 You save an afflicted people, but Your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
- Psalms 101:5 Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.
- Psalms 9:18 For the needy will not always be forgotten; nor the hope of the oppressed forever dashed.
- Isaiah 3:9 The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.
- 2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
- Psalms 10:4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his schemes there is no God.
- Psalms 17:10 They have closed their callous hearts; their mouths speak with arrogance.