May Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts.
- KJV Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.
- NKJV Let Your hand become my help, For I have chosen Your precepts.
- NASB Let Your hand be ready to help me, For I have chosen Your precepts.
- NLT Give me a helping hand, for I have chosen to follow your commandments.
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 asks God's hand to be ready to help, because he has chosen God's precepts. Deliberate commitment to God's Word invites God's help.
Overview
The psalmist appeals for God's helping 'hand' on the basis that he has freely 'chosen' to follow God's precepts. His settled choice to obey is the evidence of a heart turned to God. The God who is ready to help His committed people is the same who gives all needed grace through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Isa 41:10–14Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My right hand of righteousness.
- Josh 24:22Then Joshua told them, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” “We are witnesses!” they said.
- Deut 30:19I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live,
- Prov 1:29For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD.
- Josh 24:15But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”
- Ps 119:35Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for there I find delight.
- Ps 37:24Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, for the LORD is holding his hand.
- Luke 10:42But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”
- Mark 9:24Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”
- 2 Cor 12:9But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
- Ps 119:117Uphold me, and I will be saved, that I may always regard Your statutes.
- Ps 119:30I have chosen the way of truth; I have set Your ordinances before me.
- Ps 119:94I am Yours; save me, for I have sought Your precepts.
- Ps 119:111Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.
- 1 Kgs 3:11–12So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this instead of requesting long life or wealth for yourself or death for your enemies—but you have asked for discernment to administer justice—
- Ps 119:40How I long for Your precepts! Revive me in Your righteousness.
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
- Eph 6:10–20Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
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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 119:173 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.