Bible Strands
Psalms 86:10
For You are great and perform wonders; You alone are God.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — A supplicant addresses YHWH, bracketed between a vision of all nations bowing (v. 9) and a personal plea for instruction (v. 11). The verse functions as the theological ground for the prayer that follows.
The words — נִפְלָאוֹת (nifla'ot) carries the sense of "wondrous things," marvels that exceed expectation rather than merely impressive acts. לְבַדְּךָ (leva'dekha) — "alone, by yourself" — is the exclusivity marker that makes the claim absolute.
The thread — Psalms 72:18 mirrors the pairing almost verbatim: "who alone does marvelous deeds." Isaiah 37:16 extends the same claim to all kingdoms of the earth; Mark 12:29 distills it to the Shema's "the Lord is One."
Why it lands — It asks the reader to treat divine uniqueness not as a slogan but as the reason a prayer is directed to this one and no other. The claim is the hinge on which the supplicant's request turns.
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 art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 37:16 “O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth.
- Mark 12:29 Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
- Psalms 72:18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
- Exodus 15:11 Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?
- Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
- Isaiah 37:20 And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
- Isaiah 44:6 Thus says the LORD, the King and Redeemer of Israel, the LORD of Hosts: “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God but Me.
- Romans 15:18 I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed,
- Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.