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Psalm 86:13
For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
11Teach me your way, LORD. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.
12I will praise you, Lord my God, with my whole heart. I will glorify your name forever more.
13For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
14God, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, and they don’t hold regard for you before them.
15But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Notice
The words “lowest Sheol” name the depths of death, giving the praise of God's great loving kindness the weight of a life rescued.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What rescue in your own life helps you understand the gratitude behind these words?
Write on thisHow does the next verse's mention of violent enemies shape your reading of this praise?
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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 40:2He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.Both speakers praise God for rescue from the depths, described as Sheol in one psalm and a horrible pit in the other.
Psalm 103:8–12The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.Both passages describe God's loving kindness as great or abundant, grounding praise in his character.
Psalm 71:20You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.Both passages speak of God bringing life out of death's depths, with Psalm 86 recounting deliverance and Psalm 71 expecting it.
Psalm 116:8For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.Both speakers address God with thanks for delivering their souls from death.
Jonah 2:2He said, “I called because of my affliction to the LORD. He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried. You heard my voice.Both prayers name Sheol as the depth of distress from which God has heard or delivered the speaker.
Luke 1:58Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had magnified his mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her.Both passages describe God's great kindness toward a particular person as cause for praise or shared joy.
1 Thessalonians 1:10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.Both passages speak of deliverance: the psalm names rescue from Sheol, while Paul names Jesus as deliverer from coming wrath.
Job 33:28He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit. My life will see the light.’Both speakers credit God with saving their souls from the depths of death.
Job 33:24then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’Both passages connect God's kindness with deliverance from the pit or Sheol.
Job 33:18He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.Both passages describe a soul preserved from death, using the language of the pit or Sheol.
Isaiah 38:17Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.Both speakers link God's love toward them with his deliverance of their souls from death's depths.
Hosea 13:14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be …Both passages name Sheol and speak of rescue from its power, though Hosea also includes words of withheld compassion.
Where this verse fits
Gratitude. answered prayer. death and what comes after.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The next verse still names violent enemies. Gratitude here has room for danger that remains; the speaker praises God's great loving kindness while still needing his help.
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).