¶Open the gates of righteousness to me; I will enter through them, I will give thanks to the Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will enter into them. I will give thanks to Yah.
- KJV Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:
- BSB Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter and give thanks to the LORD.
- NKJV Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I will praise the Lord.
- NLT Open for me the gates where the righteous enter, and I will go in and thank the Lord.
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
He asks for the gates of righteousness to be opened so he may enter and give thanks. It matters because the redeemed long to come before God in grateful worship.
Overview
Approaching the temple, the psalmist requests entry through the gates to offer thanksgiving for his deliverance. Worship is the goal of salvation. These 'gates of righteousness' point ahead to the access believers have through Christ, the way into God's presence (John 14:6; Heb. 10:19-20).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Isa 26:2Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter: the one which keeps faith.
- Rev 22:14Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
- Ps 100:4Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, and bless his name.
- Ps 9:13–14Have mercy on me, Yahweh. See my affliction by those who hate me, and lift me up from the gates of death;
- Ps 66:13–15I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to you,
- Ps 95:2Let’s come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let’s extol him with songs!
- Ps 116:18–19I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of all his people,
- Isa 38:22Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I will go up to Yahweh’s house?”
- Isa 38:20Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house.
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 118:19 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.