Bible Strands
Psalms 86:13
For great is Your loving devotion to me; You have delivered me from the depths of Sheol.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the LORD directly, positioned between a vow of praise (v. 12) and a complaint about enemies seeking his life (v. 14). He is in the moment of gratitude for a specific, recent rescue.
The words — חַסְדְּךָ (chasdekh) is "your covenant loyalty," naming a binding relational commitment rather than generic kindness. תַּחְתִּיָּה (tachtiah), "lowest," modifies Sheol to intensify the depth from which the speaker was pulled.
The thread — The same chesed language appears in Psalms 103:8 and 57:10, where it is attributed to God's standing character rather than a single act. Psalms 116:8 parallels the deliverance-from-death motif with equally concrete, bodily language.
Why it lands — The verse is a specific claim: one person, one rescue, one depth. It asks the reader to hold that the speaker was in the lowest Sheol and came out, and that the cause was named as God's covenant loyalty, not chance.
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 great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
Cross-references
- Psalms 103:8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.
- Psalms 57:10 For Your loving devotion reaches to the heavens, and Your faithfulness to the clouds.
- Psalms 116:8 For You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
- Psalms 56:13 For You have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.
- Luke 1:58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they rejoiced with her.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.
- Job 33:28 He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and I will live to see the light.’
- Psalms 30:3 O LORD, You pulled me up from Sheol; You spared me from descending into the Pit.
- Job 33:24 to be gracious to him and say, ‘Spare him from going down to the Pit; I have found his ransom,’
- Psalms 16:10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.