The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand.
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.
- BSB The unfolding of Your words gives light; it informs 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.
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 for my path.
- Prov 6:23For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
- 2 Cor 4:6seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- Acts 26:18to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
- Ps 19:7Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s testimony is sure, making wise the simple.
- Luke 1:77–79to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,
- 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:
- Prov 1:22–23“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
- Eph 5:13–14But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
- 2 Cor 4:4in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
- 2 Tim 3:15–17From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
- Isa 8:20Turn to the law and to the testimony! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
- Prov 1:4to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young man:
- Prov 9:4–6“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,
- Rom 16:18–19For those who are such don’t serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the innocent.
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.