Seventeen verses on salvation in the psalms, where being saved usually means being rescued from a real danger.
In the psalms, salvation is mostly rescue. People are saved from enemies, from deep water, from sickness and from death, and they say so in concrete words. God is called my salvation, the rock of our salvation and the God of my salvation. The psalms also look wider: Psalm 98 says all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
The page moves from who saves, to the prayers asking to be saved, to what people are saved from, and ends with the joy that follows. Tick any verse and print your own sheet.
Lines that name God himself as the salvation, rather than something he hands over.
He alone is my rock, my salvation, and my fortress.I will never be greatly shaken.
He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.
He alone is my rock, my salvation and my fortress. The word alone rules out every other source of safety.
The LORD is my strength and song.He has become my salvation.
The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.
Strength, song and salvation in one line. The psalm says the LORD has become salvation, just after describing being pushed hard to fall and helped.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer;my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
Rock, fortress, deliverer, shield, horn of my salvation and high tower. The psalm piles up pictures of safety in a single verse.
Salvation belongs to the LORD.May your blessing be on your people. Selah.
Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.
Salvation belongs to the LORD. The heading places the psalm when David fled from Absalom his son, so the line is said while still in danger.
Short requests for rescue, each with the danger named.
Save me, God,for the waters have come up to my neck!
Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck. The danger is described as drowning, and the next verse adds deep mire and floods.
Save me, God, by your name.Vindicate me in your might.
Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength.
Save me by your name. The heading ties it to the Ziphites telling Saul that David was hiding among them.
Help me, LORD, my God.Save me according to your loving kindness;
Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:
Help me and save me according to your loving kindness. The measure of the rescue asked for is God's love, not the writer's merit.
Turn us again, God.Cause your face to shine,and we will be saved.
Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
Turn us again and make your face shine, and we will be saved. The line returns twice more in the psalm, each time with a fuller name for God.
Salvation in the psalms nearly always has an object. These verses name it.
For you have delivered my soul from death,my eyes from tears,and my feet from falling.
For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Death, tears and falling are named together. The rescue covers the whole person: soul, eyes and feet.
God is to us a God of deliverance.To GOD, the Lord, belongs escape from death.
He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.
God is a God of deliverance, and escape from death belongs to him. Death itself is named as something God can bring people out of.
Then they cry to the LORD in their trouble,and he saves them out of their distresses.
Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses.
They cry to the LORD in their trouble, and he saves them out of their distresses. A line like it returns for wanderers, prisoners, the afflicted and sailors across the psalm.
Save me from the lion’s mouth!Yes, you have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen.
Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
Save me from the lion's mouth. In the same verse the plea turns to past tense, you have rescued me, which is where Psalm 22 begins to change.
Verses about what comes after rescue: joy, telling others and thanks.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation.Uphold me with a willing spirit.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation. The request is for the joy to come back, so it had been known before.
Sing to the LORD!Bless his name!Proclaim his salvation from day to day!
Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day.
Proclaim his salvation from day to day. The psalm makes telling it a daily habit rather than a single event.
He has remembered his loving kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel.All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. The rescue of one people is set before the whole world.
I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the LORD’s name.
I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
I will take the cup of salvation and call on the LORD's name. Calling on his name is what the writer did in the danger too, earlier in the psalm.
For the LORD takes pleasure in his people.He crowns the humble with salvation.
For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.
Salvation is pictured as a crown, and it is given to the humble. The same verse says the LORD takes pleasure in his people.
Mostly rescue in this life. The psalms speak of being saved from enemies, from drowning, from sickness and from death, and the rescue is usually physical and specific. A few verses look wider. Psalm 98:3 speaks of the ends of the earth seeing it, and Psalm 51:12 ties the joy of salvation to a clean heart after sin.
Psalm 27:1 begins the LORD is my light and my salvation. Psalm 62:2 and Psalm 118:14 say the same in their own words.
Psalm 51:12: restore to me the joy of your salvation. Psalm 35:9 also says my soul shall rejoice in his salvation.
In Psalm 116:13 the writer takes the cup of salvation and calls on the LORD's name. It comes as his answer to being delivered from death, described earlier in the same psalm.
Psalm 3:8. It is the last verse of a short psalm headed as David's, from when he fled from Absalom.
Psalms of DeliverancePsalms for HelpPsalms for Forgiveness and RepentancePsalms of VictoryPsalms of Thanksgiving and ThankfulnessPsalms of Hope