Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 56:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 56:13: Inside “Fear, tears, and trust under threat,” “For thou hast delivered my soul from death” raises a real poetic question instead of supplying a detached answer.
Read It With
- Psalms 56:1–13
Read Psalms 56:13 with 56:1–13. Read alone, “For thou hast delivered my soul from death” could lose the individual voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 56:1–13, the individual voice carries the movement “Fear, tears, and trust under threat” as part of “Fear, tears, and trust under threat.” Its lament-confidence form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 56:1–13 opens Psalm 56 with “Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me” and establishes the individual voice and “Fear, tears, and trust under threat” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 56:13 poses the poem's question through “For thou hast delivered my soul from death” and leaves the surrounding lines to answer, intensify, or hold it open.
What Remains True
The lasting force of “For thou hast delivered my soul from death” comes through Psalms 56:1–13 and Book II, not isolation. Biblical faith can speak unresolved pain directly, remain in relationship, seek safe help, and refuse the claim that anguish proves guilt or failed faith. The local movement is “Fear, tears, and trust under threat.” The unit's reviewed limit is: Trust is voiced while fear remains; the Gath heading does not turn ordinary anxiety into faithlessness or forbid protective action.
How It Can Shape Life
- Within “Fear, tears, and trust under threat,” Psalm 56:13 poses the poem's question through “For thou hast delivered my soul from death” and leaves the surrounding lines to answer, intensify, or hold it open. A proportionate response is this: Hear the pain carried by “For thou hast delivered my soul from death” before offering explanations; stay present and help locate appropriate relational, medical, mental-health, or crisis support.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 56:1–13 — Fear, tears, and trust under threatSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 56:1–13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 56:1–13
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 56:1–13.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 56 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 56:1–13
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗