What Does Psalm 6:4 Mean?
Turn back, O LORD, draw out my living soul, deliver me for the sake of your faithful love.
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
Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.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.
“deliver me” in this verse is hoshi'eni. 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.
“my living soul” in this verse is nafshi. 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.
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 your face to shine, and we will be delivered.For thus says the Lord GOD, the Set-Apart One of Israel. In turning back and in rest you will be delivered. In stillness and in leaning your full weight will be your strength, and you would not.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken, and delivers those crushed in breath.“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