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Psalm 56 · a question people ask

"For you have delivered my soul from death" (56:13). What does the psalmist mean?

In the text

The verse says what the deliverance is for: "that I may walk before God in the light of the living" (56:13). The enemies "are eager to take my life" (56:6), and the psalmist speaks of being kept from falling: God has "prevented my feet from falling" (56:13) (tap falling). Psalm 116 says it in almost the same words: "For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living" (Psalm 116:8-9). The WEB's delivered is two different Hebrew verbs in the two psalms, but falling is the same rare word, dechi. Psalm 56 doesn't say more about the danger than these verses do, and these notes don't add to them.

The verses

“They conspire and lurk, watching my steps. They are eager to take my life.”
Psalm 56:6 · World English Bible
“For you have delivered my soul from death, and prevented my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.”
Psalm 56:13 · World English Bible
“For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”
Psalm 116:8-9 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 56

Psalm 56: What can man do to me?

The refrain comes back changed: "What can flesh do to me?" (56:4) becomes "What can man do to me?" (56:11), and the second time a line is added, "In the LORD, I will praise his word" (56:10), the only time the psalm says the LORD. And in "You count my wanderings… Aren’t they in your book?" (56:8), Strong's gives book as from the verb count.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions