Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.
Parallel translations
- WEB You are righteous, Yahweh. Your judgments are upright.
- BSB Righteous are You, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments.
- NKJV Righteous are You, O Lord, And upright are Your judgments.
- NASB ¶You are righteous, Lord, And Your judgments are right.
- NLT O Lord, you are righteous, and your regulations are fair.
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 is righteous, and His judgments are upright. The Lord's character and His rulings are perfectly just.
Overview
Opening the TZADI stanza, the psalmist confesses the righteousness of God Himself and the uprightness of all His judgments. God's justice is rooted in His very nature, so His decisions are always right. This perfect righteousness is displayed supremely at the cross, where God is shown to be both just and the justifier of those who believe in Christ (Rom. 3:26; Deut. 32:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ezra 9:15O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.
- Jer 12:1Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
- Ps 145:17The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
- Dan 9:7O LORD, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
- Ps 99:4The king’s strength also loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
- Dan 9:14Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
- Deut 32:4He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
- Neh 9:33Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:
- Rev 16:7And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
- Ps 103:6The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
- Rom 3:5–6But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man)
- Rev 15:3–4And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
- Rev 19:2For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
- Rom 2:5But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
- Rom 9:14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
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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 119:137 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.