Bible Strands
Psalms 71:6
I have leaned on You since birth; You pulled me from my mother’s womb. My praise is always for You.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — An elderly psalmist, besieged by enemies, addresses YHWH as his lifelong hope (v.5) and strong refuge (v.7).
The words — נִסְמַכְתִּי (nismakhti, "I have propped myself") carries the sense of a person leaning their full weight on another. גּוֹזִי (gozi, "you cut off") is a violent verb—severing, not gently extracting—yet the psalmist credits God with it.
The thread — The womb-as-origin motif recurs in Psalms 22:9 (brought forth, made secure at the breast), Jeremiah 1:5 (known before formation), and Psalms 139:15 (woven in secret).
Why it lands — The verse forces a reader to locate their present crisis inside the same arc of dependence that began at birth; the claim is not comfort but continuity.
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
By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
- Psalms 22:9 Yet You brought me forth from the womb; You made me secure at my mother’s breast.
- Psalms 139:15 My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
- Galatians 1:15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased
- Isaiah 49:1 Listen to Me, O islands; pay attention, O distant peoples: The LORD called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me.
- Isaiah 46:3 “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.
- Isaiah 49:5 And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, that Israel might be gathered to Him—for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and My God is My strength—
- Psalms 34:1 Of David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, so that the king drove him away. I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.
- Psalms 145:1 A Psalm of praise. Of David. I will exalt You, my God and King; I will bless Your name forever and ever.
- Proverbs 8:17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me early shall find me.