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Psalm 59:4
I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!
2Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men.
3For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, LORD.
4I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!
5You, LORD God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah.
6They return at evening, howling like dogs, and prowl around the city.
Notice
The attackers are ready despite the speaker’s innocence, and the urgent plea for God to see and help leaves the danger unresolved.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What is hard to face about the speaker’s innocence offering no protection from attack?
Write on thisWhere do you want God to see what is happening and come to your help?
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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
Psalm 35:23Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!Both prayers urge God to rise and intervene on behalf of someone facing opposition.
Job 21:27“Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me.Both speakers describe people preparing to wrong them, though Job speaks to his opponents and the psalm turns to God.
Psalm 5:6You will destroy those who speak lies. The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.Psalm 59’s surrounding prayer seeks rescue from bloodthirsty men, while Psalm 5 declares the LORD’s hatred of bloodthirsty deceit.
Acts 23:15Now therefore, you with the council inform the commanding officer that he should bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to judge his case …Both passages describe attackers who are ready to act, with Acts exposing a plan to kill under cover of a hearing.
1 Samuel 19:12–24So Michal let David down through the window. He went away, fled, and escaped.The shared thread is escape from danger: the psalm asks for help, while Michal helps David flee through a window.
Psalm 35:19Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.Both prayers describe undeserved hostility and ask God to act against those who oppose the speaker without cause.
Romans 3:15“Their feet are swift to shed blood.Both texts portray people prepared for violence; Psalm 59’s surrounding lines make the threat to life explicit.
Proverbs 1:16for their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.The attackers’ readiness in Psalm 59 shares the urgency of Proverbs’ description of people hurrying to shed blood.
Isaiah 59:7Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.Both passages describe violence directed toward the innocent, with attackers ready or hurrying to cause harm.
Isaiah 51:9Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who …Both prayers use the language of waking or rising to ask the LORD to act with strength.
Psalm 44:23Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.Both prayers urgently ask God to rise, expressing distress through a direct appeal for his intervention.
Habakkuk 1:4Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.Both passages describe the wicked threatening those who have done no wrong, exposing the suffering caused by injustice.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. fear for the future.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
An urgent prayer needs no calm disguise. Here, someone facing an undeserved attack asks God to see and act; the plea belongs within Scripture’s witness to faith.
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).