I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you.
I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge.
My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all day long.
Parallel Translations
-
I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you.
I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge.
My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all day long.
-
By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.
I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.
Show all 3 translations
-
Upon Thee have I stayed myself from birth; Thou art He that took me out of my mother's womb; my praise is continually of Thee.
I am as a wonder unto many; but Thou art my strong refuge.
My mouth shall be filled with Thy praise, and with Thy glory all the day.
Cross-references (34)
- Jeremiah 1:5 (v6) “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
- Psalms 22:9-10 (v6) But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust while at my mother’s breasts. I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb. You are my…
- Psalms 139:15-16 (v6) My frame wasn’t hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my body. In your book…
- Galatians 1:15 (v6) But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace
- Psalms 35:28 (v8) My tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long.
Show all 33 cross-references
- Isaiah 8:18 (v7) Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of Armies, who dwells in Mount Zion.
- Isaiah 49:1 (v6) Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned…
- Isaiah 46:3-4 (v6) “Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried…
- Isaiah 49:5 (v6) Now Yahweh, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, says to bring Jacob again to him, and to gather Israel to him, for I am…
- Psalms 146:2 (v8) While I live, I will praise Yahweh. I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.
- Psalms 34:1 (v6) I will bless Yahweh at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.
- Psalms 145:1-2 (vv6, 8) I will exalt you, my God, the King. I will praise your name forever and ever. Every day I will praise you. I will extol your name forever…
- Psalms 62:7 (v7) My salvation and my honor is with God. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
- Psalms 104:1 (v8) Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty.
- Acts 4:13 (v7) Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They…
- 1 Corinthians 4:9 (v7) For, I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last of all, like men sentenced to death. For we are made a spectacle to the world,…
- Proverbs 8:17 (v6) I love those who love me. Those who seek me diligently will find me.
- Jeremiah 16:19 (v7) Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth,…
- 2 Corinthians 6:8-10 (v7) by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we…
- Psalms 61:3 (v7) For you have been a refuge for me, a strong tower from the enemy.
- Psalms 71:15 (v8) My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure.
- Psalms 71:24 (v8) My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, for they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me.
- Jeremiah 3:4 (v6) Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth?’
- Zechariah 3:6 (v7) Yahweh’s angel protested to Joshua, saying,
- Luke 1:31-32 (v6) Behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and shall name him ‘Jesus.’ He will be great and will be called the Son of…
- Luke 2:34 (v7) and Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and for…
- 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 (v7) We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed;…
- Psalms 51:14-15 (v8) Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Lord, open my…
- Psalms 63:5 (v8) My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,
- Psalms 71:14 (v6) But I will always hope, and will add to all of your praise.
- Psalms 142:4-5 (v7) Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul. I cried to you,…
- Psalms 96:6 (v8) Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
- Ephesians 5:20 (v6) giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father;
33 distinct cross-references across this passage (34 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (16 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv6–7 6. Upon thee have I been sustained from the…
6. Upon thee have I been sustained from the womb. This verse corresponds with the preceding, except that David proceeds farther. He not only celebrates the goodness of God which he had experienced from his childhood, but also those proofs of it which he had received previous to his birth. An almost similar confession is contained in Psalm 22:9, 10, by which is magnified the wonderful power and inestimable goodness of God in the generation of men, the way and manner of which would be altogether incredible, were it not a fact with which we are quite familiar. If we are astonished at that part of the history of the flood, in which Moses declares (Genesis 8:13) that Noah and his household lived ten months amidst the offensive nuisance produced by so many living creatures, when he could not draw the breath of life, have we not equal reason to marvel that the infant, shut up within its mother’s womb, can live in such a condition as would suffocate the strongest man in half an hour? But we thus see how little account we make of the miracles which God works, in consequence of our familiarity with them. The Spirit, therefore, justly rebukes this ingratitude, by commending to our consideration this memorable instance of the grace of God, which is exhibited in our birth and generation. When we are born into the world, although the mother do her office, and the midwife may be present with her, and many others may lend their help, yet did not God, putting, so to speak, his hand under us, receive us into his bosom, what would become of us? and what hope would there be of the continuance of our life? Yea, rather, were it not for this, our very birth would be an entrance into a thousand deaths. God, therefore, is with the highest propriety said to take us out of our mother’s bowels To this corresponds the concluding part of the verse, My praise is continually of thee; by which the Psalmist means that he had been furnished with matter for praising God without intermission.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v7 All the world wondereth at me because of my…
All the world wondereth at me because of my miseries: as well they in authority as the common people, yet being assured of thy favor, I remained steadfast.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Psa 71:6 By thee have I been holden up…
Psa 71:6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise [shall be] continually of thee.
Ver. 6. By thee have I been holden up from the womb] As in the womb I lived upon thee, so from the womb. The same that breedeth us feedeth us; that matter that nourisheth the child in the womb striking up into the breasts, and by a further concoction becoming white, is made milk for it.
Read full note →
Thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels] Else I had never been born alive. That a child is born, fieri videmus, saith Galen, sed quomodo fiat, admirari tantum possumus. Avicenna calleth it, Opus supra mirabilia omnia mirabile, the greatest wonder in the world. Surely, if a child were born but once in a hundred years’ time, we should all run to see so strange a work, saith another.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv6–8 From the womb, i.e. from the time when I…
From the womb, i.e. from the time when I came out of the womb.
My mother’s bowels, i.e. out of her womb; which he justly mentions as a great and wonderful, though a common and neglected, work of God’s power and goodness.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–8 By thee have I been holden up from the…
By thee have I been holden up from the womb,.... Supported in being, upheld in life, and sustained with food and raiment, and followed with the mercies and blessings of life from thence to this present moment; which the psalmist takes notice of, as he does of what goes before and follows after, to encourage his faith and hope in God as to present deliverance;
thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels; See Gill on Psa 22:9; the Syriac version is, "thou art my hope from my mother's bowels"; the Arabic version, "thou art my helper"; and the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, "thou art my protector"; the word is only used here, and in Psa 90:10; and is there rendered "cut off"; the Lord was, as it were, his "cutter off" (t); that cut the navel string, and loosed him from his mother, and safely brought him into the world, and preserved him ever since: wherefore he adds,
Read full note →
my praise shall be continually of thee; as the God of nature and providence; and also as the God of grace, who had blessed him both with temporal and spiritual blessings; and these being continued with him, he determines that God should be the subject of his praise always. The Targum is,
"in thy Word my praise is continually.''
(t) "excisor meus", Gejerus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v7 A wonder - For my many and sore calamities.
A wonder - For my many and sore calamities.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v7 Verse 7. I am as a wonder unto many]…
Verse 7. I am as a wonder unto many] I am כמופת kemopheth, "as a portent," or "type:" I am a typical person; and many of the things that happen to me are to be considered in reference to him of whom I am a type. But he may mean I am a continual prodigy. My low estate, my slaying the lion and the bear, conquering the Philistine, escaping the fury of Saul, and being raised to the throne of Israel, are all so many wonders of thy providence, and effects of thy power and grace.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7–8 Psa 71:7. I am a wonder to many —…
Psa 71:7. I am a wonder to many — Hebrew, כמופת, chemopeth, as a prodigy, or monster, that is, as a frightful spectacle, which they are afraid to come near. Green renders it, as a gazing-stock to the multitude. This David was, on account of his many and sore calamities, and perhaps, also, because of his firm trust in God amidst them all; as if he had said, Every one waits to see what will be the issue of such extraordinary troubles as I have fallen into, and such extraordinary confidence as I profess to have in God. But thou art my sure refuge — But, although men desert me, and look with suspicion and contempt on me, God is a sure refuge for me. “David, banished from his kingdom,” says Dr. Horne, “was regarded as a wonder, or prodigy of wretchedness; Christ, in his state of humiliation upon earth, was a sign everywhere spoken against, as Simeon foretold he would be, Luk 2:34. The Christian, who lives by faith, who quits possession for reversion, and who chooses to suffer with his Saviour here, that he may reign with him hereafter, appears to the men of the world as a monster of folly and enthusiasm. But God is the strong refuge of all such.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv6–8 By thee have I been holden up from the…
By thee have I been holden up from the womb - From the beginning of my existence. The “idea” in all this is, that, since God had sustained him from his earliest years - since he had shown his power in keeping him, and manifested his care for him, there was ground to pray that God would keep him still, and that he would guard him as old age came on. The sentiment in this verse is substantially the same as in Psa 22:9-10. See the notes at that passage.
My praise shall be continually of thee - My praise shall ascend to thee constantly. I will not cease to praise thee. Compare the notes at Psa 22:25.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6. By thee have I been holden up from…
6. By thee have I been holden up from the womb—From the birth, or since the birth. The tender care of God for him had been like that of a mother, holding up and carrying the child from the moment of birth.
Thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels—He has already retrospected God’s care from youth to manhood, and from earliest childhood to youth. He now delicately traces back the divine tenderness during all his unconscious life until the act itself of birth. Psa_139:15-16. After his life-long and life-giving tenderness and care, can God now forsake him in old age?
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–8 7. I am &c.] Or, I have been as…
7. I am &c.] Or, I have been as a wonder. Many of those who saw my sufferings regarded me as a typical example of divine chastisement, but my faith has remained unshaken throughout. Cp. Isa_52:14; and Deu_28:46, where the punishment of Israel for its sins is spoken of as “a sign and a wonder.” In a somewhat different sense Ezekiel was a ‘wonder’ to his contemporaries (Eze_12:6; Eze_12:11; Eze_24:24; Eze_24:27). The explanation ‘I have been a sign and example of God’s protecting care’ is less natural. ‘Monster’ in P.B.V. is an archaism for ‘portent,’ or, ‘prodigy,’ from Lat. monstrum.
my strong refuge] Cp. Psa_71:1, and Jer_17:17, R.V.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–7 (6) Took me out.—Comp. Psa_22:10. The Hebrew is not…
(6) Took me out.—Comp. Psa_22:10. The Hebrew is not the same, but the Authorised Version renders by the same word, treating it as a transitive participle of a word that elsewhere only means to go through, a doubtful expedient. The LXX. (and Vulg.) have “protector,” σκεπαστἠς, which is probably an error for ἐκσπαστἠς (following Psa_22:10, ἐκσπάσας), which would support the rendering, “he that severed me,” a rendering for other reasons probable.
This allusion to birth and retrospect of life from the earliest infancy, is not unsuitable to Israel personified as an individual, or rather it suits both the individual and the community of which he is the mouthpiece. So it has often been in application treated as an epitome of the history of the Christian Church.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6–8 By thee have I been holden up from the…
By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother"s bowels. (comp. Psa_22:9, Psa_22:10, of which this is plainly an echo or reminiscence) My praise shall be continually of thee (see vers. 14-16, 22-24).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Ver. 6. By thee have I been holden up…
Ver. 6. By thee have I been holden up from the womb. Before he was able to understand the power which preserved him, he was sustained by it. God knows us before we know anything. The elect of old lay in the bosom of God before they were laid on their mothers' bosoms; and when their infantile weakness had no feet strong enough to carry it, the Lord upheld it. We do well to reflect upon divine goodness to us in childhood, for it is full of food for gratitude.
Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels. Even before conscious life, the care of God is over his chosen. Birth is a mystery of mercy, and God is with both mother and babe. If marriages are registered in heaven, we may be sure that births are also. Holy women do well to bless God for his mercy to them in nature's perilous hour; but every one who is born of woman has equal cause for thankfulness. She, whose life is preserved, should render thanks, and so should he whose life is given.
Read full note →
My praise shall be continually of thee. Where goodness has been unceasingly received, praise should unceasingly be offered. God is the circle where praise should begin, continue, and endlessly revolve, since in him we live, and move, and have our being.
Ver. 6. He did not, like most men, recognise the hand of God only when, in an extraordinary manner, it became manifest in life; but his eye of faith regards the ordinary works of God as miracles. The translation from his mother's womb to the light of day is to him an object of praise. (Ps 22:9-10.) And, really, is not the preservation of the embryo, in its narrow confines, a miracle? Is it not a pledge, simultaneously with man's growing into being, of our after experience in life, that we have a God "who bringeth us out of death to light?" (Ps 68:20.) Is not the reason of our finding so little of praise, to be sought in our having no eyes for his daily miracles? The psalmist has eyes for the daily miracles of the Lord; and, therefore, his mouth is daily full of the praise of the Lord. Augustus F. Tholuck.
Ver. 6. Blessed be God that ever I was born. Halyburton.
Ver. 6. This verse corresponds with the preceding, except that David proceeds farther. He not only celebrates the goodness of God, which he had experienced from his childhood, but, also, those proofs of it which he had received previous to his birth. An almost similar confession is contained in Ps 22:9-10, by which is magnified the wonderful power and inestimable goodness of God in the generation of men, the way and manner of which would be altogether incredible, were it not a fact with which we are quite familiar. If we are astonished at that part of the history of the flood, in which Moses declares (Ge 8:13), that Noah and his household lived ten months amidst the offensive nuisance produced by so many living creatures, when he could not draw the breath of life, have we not equal reason to marvel that the infant, shut up within its mother's womb, can live in such a condition as would suffocate the strongest man in half an hour? But we thus see how little account we make of the miracles which God works, in consequence of our familiarity with them. The Spirit, therefore, justly rebukes this ingratitude, by commending to our consideration this memorable instance of the grace of God which is exhibited in our birth and generation. When we are born into the world, although the mother do her office, and the midwife may be present with her, and many others may lend their help, yet did not God, putting, so to speak, his hand under us, receive us into his bosom, what would become of us? and what hope would there be in the continuance of our life? Yea, rather, were it not for this, our very birth would be an entrance into a thousand deaths. God, therefore, is with the highest propriety said to take us out of our mother's bowels. To this corresponds the concluding part of the verse, My praise shall be continually of thee by which the psalmist means that he has been furnished with matter for praising God without intermission. John Calvin.
None.
Psalms 71:7*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv6–8 By Thee have I been holden up from the…
Psa_71:6
By Thee have I been holden up from the womb.
Read full note →
God the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the world
I. Our birth and being are owing to God, as the original cause of them.
II. It is His providence which sustains, preserves, and holds up our goings in life. Even if the materials of our being had, in themselves, a self-subsisting power, yet the form of them by which we are men, by which we are creatures of such a species, this, we know, is liable to various contingencies, and obnoxious to many fatal alterations. Wherefore, as we derive our birth and being from the wisdom and power of our great Creator, so, if we were not nursed up by the care and goodness of His paternal providence, the brittle and tender threads of life had probably long since been broken in us, and we had consequently returned to the dust from whence we were taken.
III. There is a providential direction and disposal of such events as concern us. If we would attend to Gods dealings with us, every man, I doubt not, might find his own experience attesting the truth and fact of this directing, overruling, superintending providence. Conclusion.
1. If God be our Creator, Preserver, and Governor, then we can nowhere fix our dependence so properly, nowhere with such security and safety, as upon His infinite goodness, wisdom, and power.
2. To render this persuasion of our dependence on God more practical, we are not only to recognize His majesty and power in thought and in word, but in deed and in truth.
3. If we owe our life and being to God, as the original cause and donor of them, let His demands upon us to resign them find us in the posture of a ready obedience. (N. Marshall, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6, 8 By you I have been supported from the womb
By you I have been supported from the womb
This can be stated in active form. AT: "You have supported me from the womb" or "You have taken care of me ever since I came out of my mother's womb" (See: Active or Passive)
Read full note →
you are he
"you are the one"
I am an example to many people
"Many people see how I live and want to live as I do"
translationWords
womb
praise
refuge
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.