Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.
Parallel translations
- KJV Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
- BSB Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
- NKJV Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
- NASB ¶Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
- NLT Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.
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
God's word is a lamp to his feet and a light for his path, guiding his daily walk. Scripture illumines both the next step and the whole journey.
Overview
Opening the NUN stanza, the psalmist gives one of the Bible's most beloved images: God's word as light in a dark world. It shows both the immediate step (the lamp at the feet) and the larger way (the light on the path), directing the believer's life. This light shines fully in Christ, the Word made flesh and the light of the world (John 1:1-9; John 8:12).
Cross-references & the web
Theme
- The Word of God"Your word is a lamp to my feet."
Cross-references · 7
- Prov 6:23For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
- Ps 43:3Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, To your tents.
- Ps 18:28For you will light my lamp, Yahweh. My God will light up my darkness.
- 2 Pet 1:19We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts:
- Job 29:3when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,
- Ps 19:8Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes.
- Eph 5:13But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 119:105 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.