What Does Psalm 94:18 Mean?
When I say, My foot slips; your faithful love, LORD, props me up.
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
When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.THE KEY
The moment you name your slipping, the verse shows faithful love already bearing your weight.
THE MEANING
You can name the moment your footing gives way. The LORD’s faithful love meets the wobble as active support; your instability does not cancel the care holding you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that faltering means you have been abandoned: the verse places the admission of slipping beside the reality of being upheld.
THE ROOT
יִסְעָדֵנִי
yisʿādēnî
GROWS FROM
סעד
s-ʿ-d
To support, sustain, or strengthen.
“props me up” in this verse is yisʿādēnî. This root describes support that bears weight. In Genesis, the same verb is rendered “comfort” when Abraham offers to “comfort” his guests’ hearts, revealing that the support holding your footing can also strengthen the heart.
ALSO GROWS
seʿādēnî: Hold me up; sustain me.
סְעָדֵנִי
Psalm 119:117 uses this same form, making the request for support explicit.
wəsaʿadû: And sustain or strengthen.
וְסַעֲדוּ
In Genesis 18:5, this root is translated “comfort” in “comfort ye your hearts,” joining support for the body with strength for the heart.
THE PATTERN
When human footing gives way, sustaining care keeps the fall from defining the person.
Though he falls, he will not be hurled down, for the LORD props him up with his hand.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.Pursued, but not left behind; thrown down, but not perishing.THE THREAD
Hold me up, and I will be brought out; I will gaze upon your statutes continually.“Hold thou me up” uses the same Hebrew root, סעד (s-ʿ-d), as “held me up” here. One verse names the support already holding you; the other shows that same support becoming the ground of safety.
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