I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.
Parallel translations
- WEB A Psalm by David. I will sing of loving kindness and justice. To you, Yahweh, I will sing praises.
- BSB A Psalm of David. I will sing of Your loving devotion and justice; to You, O LORD, I will sing praises.
- NKJV I will sing of mercy and justice; To You, O Lord, I will sing praises.
- NASB I will sing of mercy and justice; To You, Lord, I will sing praises.
- NLT I will sing of your love and justice, Lord. I will praise you with songs.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David resolves to sing of God's loving kindness and justice. He celebrates the very qualities he aims to imitate as king.
Overview
Psalm 101 is David's pledge to rule with integrity, beginning by praising God's steadfast love and justice. By singing of these, he commits to reflecting them in his own reign. This points to Christ, the true King in whom mercy and justice are perfectly joined.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 89:1I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
- Ps 71:22–23I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.
- Ps 145:7They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
- Rev 19:1–3And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
- Ps 51:14Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
- Rom 9:15–18For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
- Ps 103:6–8The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
- Rev 15:3–4And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
- Ps 136:10–22To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever:
- Ps 97:8Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O LORD.
- Rom 11:22Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
- Rom 9:22–23What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 101:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.