Bible · NudgeRead the passage
Psalm 25:16-17
Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses.
What surrounds this passage
Psalm 25 is a prayer of David asking God for attention, guidance and mercy. In these two verses the speaker describes his own condition and asks God to look at him. The psalm does not resolve the trouble here; it keeps asking.
The verses on either side
- His soul shall dwell at ease. His offspring shall inherit the land.
- The friendship of Yahweh is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.
- My eyes are ever on Yahweh, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
- Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted.
- The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses.
- Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins.
- Consider my enemies, for they are many. They hate me with cruel hatred.
- Oh keep my soul, and deliver me. Let me not be disappointed, for I take refuge in you.
Verse 18 is here because the psalm is, and it is deliberately not part of the passage this site delivers for loneliness. It turns to sin and forgiveness, and arriving right after somebody has said they are lonely it can be read as connecting the two. The review excluded it from the delivered lines rather than from the page.
A question to sit with
If you could ask for one thing to be noticed today, what would it be?
Why this one, and not these
- Psalm 25:18
- Excluded from the delivered range although it is the next verse. It turns to sin and forgiveness, and offered to somebody who has just said they are lonely it invites the reading that their loneliness is connected to their sin. The verse is not hidden; the whole psalm remains open to anybody reading on.
- Psalm 68:6
- The strongest search alignment in the evidence cluster and the highest pastoral risk in it. It states an outcome, and read as a promise it tells a lonely person their circumstance will change. To a reader for whom it does not, that is a broken promise.
- Hebrews 13:5
- Widely used for this experience, but its own sentence is about contentment with possessions. Detached from it, the promise can be heard as telling a lonely person that God's presence should be sufficient and their want of human company is a failure of contentment. That is a rebuke, and this product does not rebuke.
- Genesis 2:18
- It names aloneness as not good in God's own speech, which is valuable, but its immediate context is the making of a partner and it can imply that the answer to loneliness is a spouse.
- Psalm 139:7-12
- Not rejected on its merits. It addresses presence in isolation and is held for a possible subtopic rather than merged into this delivery.
- 2 Timothy 4:16-17
- Not rejected on its merits. It addresses abandonment by people specifically and is held for a possible subtopic.
- Mark 14:32-38
- Not rejected on its merits. It addresses being alone while other people are present, needs its narrative to work, and does not reduce to a single verse.
Written about this passage
- Bible Verses for the Empty Nest: When the Last Child Leaves Home
- Bible Verses for Feeling Left Out: Leah, Hagar and a God Who Sees
- Bible Verses for Loneliness and Sadness: Turn to Me, for I Am Desolate
- Bible Verses for Loneliness in Marriage: Alone With Someone
- Bible Verses for Moving to a New Place: For the First Nights Somewhere New
- Leah Name Meaning in the Bible: Who Leah Was, What Her Name Means, and the Woman Genesis Says God Saw
- What Does the Bible Say About Loneliness? Chosen Solitude, Singleness and the Whole of Psalm 25
- When Loneliness Is Affecting Your Health: What the New Study Found, a First Step This Week, and Psalm 25 to Pray
- When Your Parent Lives Alone: Daily Check-In Calls, Where to Find One, How to Ask, and Psalm 25 for the Worry
- Who in the Bible Was Lonely: Jeremiah, Joseph, Job, Anna, the People Put Outside the Camp, and Jesus