What Does Psalm 6:4 Mean in the King James?
Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.
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 verse frames rescue as the whole living self being brought from constriction into spaciousness, held by faithful love.
THE MEANING
The reader’s living self is crying for deliverance now; the LORD is asked to turn toward it and bring it out. The plea rests in faithful love, the enduring care named in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that deliverance must be earned gives way to this plea, which rests in the LORD’s faithful love.
THE ROOT
הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי
hoshi'eni
GROWS FROM
יָשַׁע
yasha
To deliver, bringing someone out of constriction into spaciousness.
The word rendered “save” here is יָשַׁע (yasha), meaning to deliver or bring out from constriction into spaciousness. With “deliver my soul” immediately before it, the verse makes rescue a movement reaching the whole living self.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This branch names the movement the reader asks for: being brought out.
moshia: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
The same root can name the one who brings the living self out.
Yeshua: Deliverance; a name formed from this root
יֵשׁוּעַ
The root’s meaning is carried in the name itself.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נפשׁ
nefesh
The living self or person; life as a whole living being.
נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) gathers the living self that English can name as soul, life, person, or appetite; here it is the whole being asking for rescue. Its related verb נָפַשׁ (naphash), to rest or refresh oneself, lets the plea carry the sense of life reaching relief.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, person, or life
נֶפֶשׁ
The verse names the whole living self as the one being delivered.
naphash: To rest or refresh oneself
נָפַשׁ
This related branch lends the plea a sense of life reaching relief.
חַסְדֶּךָ
chasdecha
GROWS FROM
חסד
chesed
Faithful love; loyal care that remains in action.
“mercies” in this verse is chasdecha. חֶסֶד (chesed) is faithful love, loyal care that remains in action. The closing phrase grounds the request in the LORD’s enduring nature, so the plea is held by that faithful love.
ALSO GROWS
chesed: Faithful love
חֶסֶד
This is the quality named as the ground of the plea.
chasid: A faithful or loyal one
חָסִיד
This related form describes one characterized by chesed’s loyal care.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance comes as the LORD turns toward distress and brings the living self out into release.
Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.“Saveth” here translates יָשַׁע (yasha), meaning to deliver or bring out, the same root behind “save me” in Psalm 6:4. This verse places that deliverance beside the brokenhearted, letting the root’s promise reach a reader who feels broken.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us