Trouble and distress have found me, but Your commandments are my delight.
Parallel translations
- WEB Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me. Your commandments are my delight.
- KJV Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.
- NKJV Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, Yet Your commandments are my delights.
- NASB Trouble and anguish have come upon me, Yet Your commandments are my delight.
- NLT As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands.
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
Even when trouble and anguish grip him, the psalmist still finds delight in God's commandments. Real distress and genuine joy in God's Word can coexist.
Overview
In the affliction stanza of Psalm 119, the writer admits that pressure has 'taken hold' of him, yet his refuge and pleasure remain in God's commandments. Trouble does not loosen his grip on God's Word; it drives him deeper into it. This anticipates the believer who, in Christ, can rejoice in tribulation because the unshakable Word of God remains a source of delight.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Job 23:12I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.
- Ps 119:107I am severely afflicted, O LORD; revive me through Your word.
- Ps 88:3–18For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
- Ps 130:1A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!
- Ps 119:16I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
- Ps 18:4–5The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
- Ps 119:47I delight in Your commandments because I love them.
- Ps 116:3The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.
- Mark 14:33–34He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed.
- Ps 119:77May Your compassion come to me, that I may live, for Your law is my delight.
- John 4:34Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.
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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 119:143 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.