Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights.
Parallel translations
- WEB Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me. Your commandments are my delight.
- BSB Trouble and distress have found me, but Your commandments are my delight.
- 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 23:12Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
- Ps 119:107I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O LORD, according unto thy word.
- Ps 88:3–18For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
- Ps 130:1Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
- Ps 119:16I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
- Ps 18:4–5The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
- Ps 119:47And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.
- Ps 116:3The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.
- Mark 14:33–34And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;
- Ps 119:77Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.
- John 4:34Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 119:143 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.