Shared ground
Psalm 138:8 ends the psalm by combining confidence and petition. The speaker expects Yahweh to finish what concerns them (an explicit claim), and supports that expectation with a second explicit claim: Yahweh’s loyal love endures without running out. On that basis, the speaker asks Yahweh not to abandon “the works of your hands.” The logic is relational: because Yahweh’s loyal love is lasting, the speaker expects Yahweh’s involvement to be lasting as well.
The verse also assumes the speaker is included in what Yahweh has made or begun (explicitly implied by the plea). The prayer is not built on the speaker’s stability or strength, but on Yahweh’s character and consistent care (explicit).
Where interpretation differs
Two main questions are left open by the wording.
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What does “what concerns me” refer to? Some read it as the speaker’s personal situation—deliverance from trouble, protection, or the completion of a specific matter Yahweh has taken up. Others think it can include the speaker’s broader calling or role within God’s larger purposes, not just immediate rescue.
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What are “the works of your hands”? Some take this narrowly as the speaker’s life (or the speaker together with the community behind the psalm). Others read it more broadly as Yahweh’s work in general—his people, his actions in history, or even creation—while still acknowledging the speaker is appealing as one example of that work.
Why the disagreement exists
The verse uses broad phrases without naming the exact crisis, goal, or setting. “What concerns me” can naturally point either to a concrete threat in view (especially after v. 7’s “trouble”) or to the larger shape of Yahweh’s intended outcome for the speaker. Likewise, “works of your hands” can mean the individual speaker, the people of Israel, or Yahweh’s handiwork more generally; the line’s poetic imagery does not specify a single scope.
What this passage clearly contributes
This verse clearly presents (1) Yahweh as the one who brings matters to their intended end, (2) Yahweh’s enduring loyal love as the stated reason for confidence, and (3) prayer that holds confidence and urgency together: the speaker can say “Yahweh will fulfill” and still ask “don’t forsake.” It also contributes a personal, maker-to-made appeal: the speaker treats abandonment as unfitting for Yahweh toward what his own “hands” have made and begun (Psalm 138:8).
