Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let my soul live, that I may praise you. Let your ordinances help me.
- BSB Let me live to praise You; may Your judgments sustain me.
- NKJV Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; And let Your judgments help me.
- NASB Let my soul live that it may praise You, And let Your ordinances help me.
- NLT Let me live so I can praise you, and may your regulations help me.
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 to be kept alive so he may praise God, and for God's ordinances to help him. Life and the help of God's Word exist for praising Him.
Overview
The psalmist's plea for life has a purpose: 'that I may praise you.' He sees both his survival and the sustaining help of God's ordinances as means to worship. This God-centered view of life, lived to praise God, is the goal of redemption accomplished in Christ, who gives life that overflows in praise.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Isa 55:3Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
- Ps 51:14–15Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
- Isa 26:8–9Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
- Ps 118:18–19The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.
- Isa 38:19The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
- 1 Cor 11:31–32For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
- Rom 8:28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
- Ps 30:9What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?
- Ps 9:13–14Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:
- Ps 119:75I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.
- 2 Cor 4:17For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
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 119:175 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.