Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo
Read

Psalm 18:16

He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.

14He sent out his arrows, and scattered them. He routed them with great lightning bolts.
15Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
16He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.
17He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
18They came on me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →
← Psalm 18:15Psalm 18:17 →
Notice

The “many waters” picture danger beyond David’s strength, while God’s reach from on high gives his rescue a source outside himself.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What experience in your life, if any, would you describe as being drawn out of many waters?

Write on this

How does God acting “from on high” shape your understanding of the rescue David describes?

Write on this
Connect

Where else Scripture says this

10 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
2 Samuel 22:17He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters.Both passages recount God sending from on high, taking hold of the speaker, and drawing him out of many waters.
Psalm 144:7Stretch out your hand from above, rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, out of the hands of foreigners,Both describe rescue from waters through help from above; Psalm 144 asks for the deliverance Psalm 18 recounts.
Psalm 57:3He will send from heaven, and save me, he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah. God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.Both locate saving help in heaven: Psalm 57 expects God to send help, while Psalm 18 recounts his rescue.
Jonah 2:5–6The waters surrounded me, even to the soul. The deep was around me. The weeds were wrapped around my head.Both describe danger through surrounding waters; Jonah describes being engulfed, while David recounts being drawn out.
Psalm 18:43You have delivered me from the strivings of the people. You have made me the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known shall serve me.Both credit God with deliverance, describing rescue through the image of waters and through release from human conflict.
Psalm 32:6For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.Both speak of great waters as a threat and describe safety through God’s help.
Exodus 2:10The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”Both describe someone being drawn out of water, with God acting in the psalm and Pharaoh’s daughter naming Moses’s rescue.
Revelation 17:15He said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.Both use water imagery, but Revelation identifies its waters as peoples, while Psalm 18 describes waters from which God rescues.
Jeremiah 51:42The sea has come up on Babylon. She is covered with the multitude of its waves.Both portray overwhelming waters; Babylon is covered by waves, while David is drawn out.
Proverbs 17:8A bribe is a precious stone in the eyes of him who gives it; wherever he turns, he prospers.Both use concrete images, waters and a precious stone, though the proverb concerns a bribe and shares no clear rescue theme.
Where this verse fits

Answered prayer. gratitude. fear for the future.

What the Bible says about gratitude →What the Bible says about fear →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Thank God for help beyond your own strength

prayeroncelight
Encouragement

David names a danger he could not master. His song gives God the credit for reaching him where his own strength could not save him.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 18:16. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 18 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).