Bible Strands
Psalms 31:8
You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David addresses the Lord while shifting from recounting observed affliction to pleading for immediate relief. The speaker moves from declaring joy over God's prior knowledge of his anguish to requesting deliverance from current distress.
The words — The Hebrew הִסְגַּרְתָּנִי (hisgar-tani) literally means "you delivered up me," while בַּמֶּרְחָב (ba-merchav) translates to "in the roomy place." These terms establish the verse's structural contrast between confinement and liberation.
The thread — This transition from distress to a "spacious and broad place" mirrors the phrasing found in Job 36:16. The request for God to act as a righteous deliverer aligns with the opening appeal of Psalms 4:1.
Why it lands — The text requires acknowledgment that God's intervention prevents enemy capture and establishes footing in open ground. It demands the reader recognize that deliverance from confinement must be acknowledged before any subsequent petition for mercy.
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
And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.
Cross-references
- Job 36:16 Indeed, He drew you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and broad place, to a table full of richness.
- Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- Psalms 4:1 For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer.
- Psalms 18:19 He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.
- 1 Samuel 17:46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand. This day I will strike you down, cut off your head, and give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the creatures of the earth. Then the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
- 1 Samuel 24:18 And you have declared this day how you have treated me well, for when the LORD delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.
- Job 16:11 God has delivered me to unjust men; He has thrown me to the clutches of the wicked.
- Psalms 88:8 You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.
- Isaiah 19:4 I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of a harsh master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.
- 1 Samuel 26:8 Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now, therefore, please let me thrust the spear through him into the ground with one stroke. I will not need to strike him twice!”