I look at the faithless with loathing, because they don’t observe your word.
Parallel translations
- KJV I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.
- BSB I look on the faithless with loathing because they do not keep Your word.
- NKJV I see the treacherous, and am disgusted, Because they do not keep Your word.
- NASB I see the treacherous and loathe them, Because they do not keep Your word.
- NLT Seeing these traitors makes me sick at heart, because they care nothing for your word.
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 looks with grief and loathing at the faithless who disregard God's word. Love for God produces sorrow over sin.
Overview
The psalmist's 'loathing' is not personal vindictiveness but holy grief at the faithlessness of those who ignore God's Word. A heart aligned with God shares God's hatred of sin while longing for sinners' repentance. This righteous sorrow over rebellion mirrors Christ, who wept over a city that rejected God's Word.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 139:21Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?
- Ps 119:53Indignation has taken hold on me, because of the wicked who forsake your law.
- Ps 119:136Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe your law. TZADI
- Ezek 9:4Yahweh said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”
- Mark 3:5When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other.
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 119:158 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.