I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
Parallel translations
- WEB I hate double-minded men, but I love your law.
- BSB The double-minded I despise, but Your law I love.
- NKJV I hate the double-minded, But I love Your law.
- NASB ¶I hate those who are double-minded, But I love Your Law.
- NLT I hate those with divided loyalties, but I love your instructions.
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 hates the double-minded but loves God's law. Wholehearted devotion to the word leaves no room for divided loyalty.
Overview
Opening the SAMEKH stanza, the psalmist contrasts his hatred of the half-hearted and wavering with his love for God's law. The double-minded are unstable in their commitment, while the psalmist treasures the word with singular devotion. James warns that the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, and Christ calls for undivided allegiance to God (James 1:8; Matt. 6:24).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Jas 1:8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
- Jer 4:14O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
- Isa 55:7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
- Ps 119:97O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
- 2 Cor 10:5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
- Mark 7:21For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
- Ps 94:11The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
- Ps 119:103How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
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 119:113 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.