What Does Psalm 71:2 Mean in the King James?
Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.
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 stacks deliverance, escape, and salvation into one movement: the speaker is brought out through God’s alignment as the cry is heard.
THE MEANING
You can be in danger and still ask for a way out, because rescue rests in God’s alignment, not your ability to secure it. Deliverance, escape, being heard, and being saved are joined in a single living plea. God’s listening is part of the rescue, not something outside it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that you must make yourself worthy before asking for rescue is undone here: the speaker asks to be delivered through God’s righteousness.
THE ROOT
הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי
hoshieni
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver; bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
English “save” can sound like a status, but this root carries movement: being brought out of constriction into spaciousness. Its branch יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance) shares its root with יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, a name carrying the nature of deliverance), so rescue here is release into room to live.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the same bringing out that the speaker asks for.
Yeshua: A name carrying the nature of deliverance
יֵשׁוּעַ
The name shares the root of “save,” linking the plea to deliverance as a nature, not merely a status.
בְּצִדְקָתְךָ
be-tsidqatekha
GROWS FROM
צדק
ts-d-q
Alignment; what is right or set in order.
“righteousness” in this verse is be-tsidqatekha. The possessive “thy” places the source of rescue in God’s alignment. The root carries more than a moral credential: it evokes what is set right, so deliverance comes through God’s ordering rather than the speaker’s own standing.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: One who is aligned or right
צַדִּיק
This branch describes a person in relation to the alignment named in the plea.
tsedaqah: Righteousness, justice, or right action
צְדָקָה
This branch shows how alignment can take shape in action.
וּתְפַלְּטֵנִי
u-tefaleteni
GROWS FROM
פלט
p-l-ṭ
Slip away, escape, or be brought out of danger.
“cause me to escape” in this verse is u-tefaleteni. The escape verb gives the plea a concrete exit: the speaker is asking to get clear of danger, not only to receive a changed status. Together with the other rescue verbs, it makes deliverance a movement out.
ALSO GROWS
miflat: Refuge or escape
מִפְלָט
This branch gives the escape request the shape of a place of safety.
palit: A survivor or one who escapes
פָּלִיט
This branch names the one who has made it out, the lived result of the plea.
THE PATTERN
When the threatened one cries, God’s hearing and alignment take form as deliverance.
Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;THE THREAD
This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.The same Hebrew root ישע (yasha, deliver) names the requested “save me” here and the LORD’s act in Psalm 34:6. That verse also joins being heard to being brought out, opening the ear and rescue clauses as one motion.
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