My eyes anticipate the watches of night, that I may meditate on Your word.
Parallel translations
- WEB My eyes stay open through the night watches, that I might meditate on your word.
- KJV Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
- NKJV My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.
- NASB My eyes anticipate the night watches, So that I may meditate on Your word.
- NLT I stay awake through the night, thinking about your promise.
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
He stays awake through the night to meditate on God's word. Devotion to Scripture fills even his sleepless hours.
Overview
Anticipating each 'night watch,' the psalmist gives his wakeful hours to meditating on God's Word rather than anxiety. Such meditation is the believer's habit of dwelling on Scripture until it shapes the heart. This pictures the blessed man of Psalm 1, who meditates day and night and is ultimately the righteous one fulfilled in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ps 63:6When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.
- Lam 2:19Arise, cry out in the night from the first watch of the night. Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children who are fainting from hunger on the corner of every street.
- Luke 6:12In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.
- Ps 63:1A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
- Ps 139:17–18How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum!
- Ps 119:62At midnight I rise to give You thanks for Your righteous judgments.
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 119:148 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.