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Psalm 31:7
I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness, for you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.
5Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, LORD, God of truth.
6I hate those who regard lying vanities, but I trust in the LORD.
7I will be glad and rejoice in your loving kindness, for you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.
8You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.
9Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.
Notice
Gladness rests on being seen and known by God in affliction, while the surrounding psalm still speaks of distress and a body worn by grief.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What part of your experience would you name beneath the words “You have known my soul in adversities”?
Write on thisWhat, if anything, helps you recognize God's loving kindness while trouble remains?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 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
Genesis 31:42Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my …Jacob and the psalm's speaker both say that God has seen their affliction, grounding their words in God's attention to their trouble.
Isaiah 49:13Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains! For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.Both link rejoicing with God's care for the afflicted: loving kindness in the psalm, comfort and compassion in Isaiah.
Psalm 90:14Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.Both psalms join rejoicing and gladness to God's loving kindness, one celebrating it and the other asking for it.
Isaiah 63:9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried …Both speak of God's love in the midst of affliction; Isaiah also recounts his saving and carrying his people.
Psalm 59:16But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my …Both speakers praise God's loving kindness with trouble in view, naming affliction in Psalm 31 and distress in Psalm 59.
Psalm 119:153Consider my affliction, and deliver me, for I don’t forget your law.Affliction is brought before God in both prayers: one declares that God has seen it, while the other asks him to consider it.
2 Timothy 2:19However, God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from …Both speak of being known by God: the psalm names a soul in adversity, and Timothy names those who belong to the Lord.
Galatians 4:9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you …Being known by God appears in both texts, within the psalm's praise and Paul's warning against returning to bondage.
Isaiah 63:16For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn’t know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, LORD, are our Father. Our Redeemer from everlasting is your …Both address God with trust in his care; Isaiah names him as Father and Redeemer, while the psalm names his loving kindness.
John 10:27–30My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.The psalm speaks of God knowing the speaker's soul; Jesus says that he knows his sheep, who hear and follow him.
Deuteronomy 2:7For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has known your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years, the LORD your …Both describe God's knowledge of people through hardship: a soul in adversities and Israel's walking through the wilderness.
Isaiah 43:2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be …The psalm speaks of God knowing a soul in adversity; Isaiah promises God's presence through waters and fire.
Where this verse fits
Grief. loneliness. gratitude.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
You do not have to force gladness to speak this prayer. The same psalm returns to grief. God's loving kindness includes seeing affliction and knowing the person who suffers.
Now put it in your words.
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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).