What Does Psalm 7:10 Mean in the King James?
My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.
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’s shield and its “saveth” are one movement: protection holds the heart by bringing it out.
THE MEANING
God is the reader’s defense, bringing the heart that is upright within out of what threatens it. “Upright” carries the image of inner straightness, joining protection with the heart’s alignment. Deliverance is God’s action in the reader’s present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your safety depends entirely on your own ability to brace and defend yourself.
THE ROOT
מוֹשִׁיעַ
moshia
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver, to bring out.
“saveth” in this verse is moshia. The word names God as the one bringing the reader out. The same root forms the word for deliverance, so protection here has movement in it: the heart is brought out of constriction.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance; being brought out.
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the same action as deliverance, linking the verse’s protection with the experience of being brought out.
yesha: Help, deliverance.
יֵשַׁע
This word keeps help and rescue within the same root family as the one who “saveth.”
יִשְׁרֵי
yishrei
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
Straight, level, direct.
“Upright in heart” carries the image of an inner line that is straight. The verse describes protection in relation to the heart’s alignment, not merely its outward position.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, upright.
יָשָׁר
The related adjective makes uprightness an image of straightness within.
yosher: Straightness, integrity.
יֹשֶׁר
This branch names inward integrity as straightness, illuminating what “upright in heart” describes.
THE PATTERN
Divine protection is pictured as both refuge around the person and deliverance that brings them through danger.
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.THE THREAD
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.“Saveth” here is מוֹשִׁיעַ (moshia, deliverer), from יָשַׁע (yasha, to deliver or bring out); Isaiah’s “salvation” is יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance), from that same root. The shared root reveals the shield as active deliverance: God brings the heart out.
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