What Does Psalm 40:13 Mean?
Be pleased, O LORD, to snatch me out. O LORD, hurry to help me.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.THE KEY
The Hebrew keeps rescue and help distinct: one pulls you clear of danger; the other brings aid to your need.
THE MEANING
Your need can be named plainly: deliver me, and hurry to my aid. The verse holds the request for rescue together with the urgency of needing help now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that urgent asking signals weak trust: here, urgency is directed straight toward the LORD.
THE ROOT
לְהַצִּילֵנִי
lehatsileni
GROWS FROM
נצל
natsal
To snatch away, rescue, or pull free.
“snatch me out” in this verse is lehatsileni. This verb keeps the endangered person and the act of pulling them clear in view. English “deliver” can sound abstract; the root carries the motion of rescue.
ALSO GROWS
hitzil: He rescued or pulled free.
הִצִּיל
The same root makes rescue an active movement out of danger.
nitsal: Was rescued or escaped.
נִצַּל
This form shows the other side of the movement: the person who is brought clear.
עֶזְרָתִי
ezrati
GROWS FROM
עזר
azar
To help, aid, or support.
“help me” in this verse is ezrati. “Help” here is not another word for being pulled free. The plea turns from rescue to aid: the person in distress asks for support to meet the need at hand.
ALSO GROWS
ezer: Help or aid.
עֵזֶר
The noun carries the same idea of assistance named in the plea.
ozer: Helper; one who aids.
עוֹזֵר
This branch brings the source of the aid into view: help is someone coming to assist.
חוּשָׁה
chushah
GROWS FROM
חושׁ
chush
To hurry or hasten.
“hurry” in this verse is chushah. The plea gives its urgency a clear place in the sentence: rescue is requested, and the LORD is asked to hasten toward the need. The root makes speed part of the appeal, not an unspoken feeling.
ALSO GROWS
chush: Hasten or hurry.
חוּשׁ
The root verb names the urgency carried by the verse.
yechishennah: He will hasten it (Isaiah 60:22).
יְחִישֶׁנָּה
The same root can name a hastening act, echoing the plea for aid to come quickly.
THE PATTERN
A cry for help holds together the need to be pulled from danger and the need for aid to meet the present distress.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. Hurry, O God, to snatch me free; hurry to help me, O LORD.But you, LORD, do not move far; my strength, hurry to my help.Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not look about in dismay, for I am your God. I will grip you, and I will help you, and I will hold you up with the right hand of my alignment.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. Hurry, O God, to snatch me free; hurry to help me, O LORD.This verse repeats the same Hebrew rescue verb, help noun, and hurry verb in almost the same sequence. Its near-identical plea gives the reader another way to voice the same urgent request, holding rescue and aid side by side.
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