Do good to your servant. I will live and I will obey your word.
Parallel translations
- KJV Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
- BSB Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.
- NKJV Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word.
- NASB ¶Deal generously with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word.
- NLT Be good to your servant, that I may live and obey 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
The psalmist asks God to deal bountifully with him so that he may live and keep God's word. It matters because both life and obedience are gifts that depend on God's gracious dealing.
Overview
Opening the Gimel stanza, the psalmist prays for God's generous goodness as the foundation for living and obeying. He sees obedience as flowing from God's bounty, not human merit. This dependence on grace for life and obedience is fulfilled in the gospel, where God grants new life in Christ and empowers faithful living.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 13:6I will sing to Yahweh, because he has been good to me.
- Titus 2:11–12For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
- Eph 2:4–5But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
- Ps 116:7Return to your rest, my soul, for Yahweh has dealt bountifully with you.
- Ps 119:124Deal with your servant according to your loving kindness. Teach me your statutes.
- Ps 119:65Do good to your servant, according to your word, Yahweh.
- 1 Jn 5:3–4For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
- 1 Jn 2:29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
- Phil 4:19My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
- Ps 119:132Turn to me, and have mercy on me, as you always do to those who love your name.
- John 1:16From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
- Eph 2:10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
- 2 Cor 9:7–11Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart; not grudgingly, or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.
- Rom 8:2–4For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 119:17 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.