What Does Psalm 109:21 Mean in the King James?

But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.

Psalm 109:21 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The plea finds its ground in the rescuer’s nature: good, faithful love is what pulls the speaker out.

THE MEANING

The reader’s need for rescue stands before God, grounded in who God is: a nature of faithful love, called good. “For thy name’s sake” makes this a relational appeal, leaning on the character carried in God’s name. The Hebrew verb for “deliver” pictures being snatched out of what holds a person.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This verse dissolves the belief that rescue must be earned by the sufferer’s worthiness; the plea rests on the goodness of God’s own faithful love.

THE ROOT

הַצִּילֵנִי

hatzileni

GROWS FROM

נצל

natsal

To snatch away, rescue, or deliver.

The verb translated “deliver” carries the concrete sense of being snatched out of danger or another’s hold. Elsewhere this root describes stripping something away, so rescue here has a subtractive shape: what holds the speaker is removed.

ALSO GROWS

nitsal: Be rescued or escape; a form of the same root.

נִצַּל

This form makes the received nature of rescue visible: a person is brought out.

vayenatslu: They stripped or plundered; the same root appears as “spoiled” in Exodus 12:36.

וַיְנַצְּלוּ

The shared root gathers rescue and stripping under the image of taking something out of another’s grasp.

חַסְדֶּךָ

chasdekha

GROWS FROM

חסד

ḥ-s-d

Faithful love and loyalty expressed within a relationship.

The word rendered “mercy” names more than a moment of leniency: it carries the sense of dependable, faithful love. The speaker calls that love good and makes it the reason for the plea.

ALSO GROWS

chasadim: Acts of faithful love; the plural form of chesed.

חֲסָדִים

It shows this love taking shape in acts, rather than remaining an abstract quality.

chasid: A faithful or devoted person, from the same root.

חָסִיד

The related word describes a person by the same quality of loyalty and devotion that the verse names as God’s chesed.

THE PATTERN

The plea for deliverance draws its confidence from the giver’s own faithful character.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Psalm 23:3 · KJVRestoration is tied to God’s name, just as the plea here grounds deliverance in God’s nature.

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Exodus 34:6 · KJVGod’s own character is named in terms of mercy, goodness, and truth, the very ground on which this verse asks for deliverance.

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he can not deny himself.

2 Timothy 2:13 · KJVGod’s faithfulness rests in God’s own nature, echoing the appeal to the character carried in God’s name.

THE THREAD

And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

Exodus 12:36 · KJV

The verb translated “deliver” here comes from ⁨נצל⁩ (natsal), the same root behind “spoiled” in this verse. Both uses turn on a decisive taking away: here the speaker asks to be pulled out; there, Egypt is stripped of what it holds.

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