How can I repay the LORD for all His goodness to me?
Parallel translations
- WEB What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me?
- KJV What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
- NKJV What shall I render to the Lord For all His benefits toward me?
- NASB ¶What shall I repay to the Lord For all His benefits to me?
- NLT What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me?
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
The psalmist asks how he can repay the Lord for all his benefits. It matters because grace received rightly stirs a desire to respond in gratitude.
Overview
Overwhelmed by God's goodness, the worshiper searches for a fitting response, knowing he cannot truly repay. The answer that follows is not payment but worship and testimony. This captures the gospel logic: we cannot repay grace, but we respond with thankful devotion to the God who gave his Son.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ps 103:2Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His kind deeds—
- 1 Cor 6:20you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
- 2 Cor 5:14–15For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.
- 2 Chr 32:25But because his heart was proud, Hezekiah did not repay the favor shown to him. Therefore wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
- Rom 12:1Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
- Ps 51:12–14Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.
- Isa 6:5–8Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 116:12 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.