The unfolding of Your words gives light; it informs the simple.
Parallel translations
- WEB The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.
- KJV The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
- NKJV The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.
- NASB The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.
- NLT The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.
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 unfolding of God's words gives light and understanding even to the simple. Scripture enlightens the humble and untrained.
Overview
The psalmist celebrates how the entrance or unfolding of God's words brings illumination, granting understanding to the simple. The word does not require human cleverness; it instructs the lowly and teachable. This light-giving power points to the gospel, which God reveals to the childlike and which makes wise the simple unto salvation in Christ (Ps. 19:7; 2 Tim. 3:15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 119:105Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
- Prov 6:23For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,
- 2 Cor 4:6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- Acts 26:18to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’
- Ps 19:7The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple.
- Luke 1:77–79to give to His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
- 2 Pet 1:19We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
- Prov 1:22–23“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Eph 5:13–14But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself.
- 2 Cor 4:4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
- 2 Tim 3:15–17From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
- Isa 8:20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
- Prov 1:4To impart prudence to the simple and knowledge and discretion to the young,
- Prov 9:4–6“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” she says to him who lacks judgment.
- Rom 16:18–19For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.
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 119:130 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.