Let my soul live that it may praise You, And let Your ordinances help me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let my soul live, that I may praise you. Let your ordinances help me.
- KJV Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments 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.
- 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 55:3Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
- Ps 51:14–15Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
- Isa 26:8–9Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, have we waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.
- Ps 118:18–19Yah has punished me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
- Isa 38:19The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.
- 1 Cor 11:31–32For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged.
- Rom 8:28We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
- Ps 30:9“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?
- Ps 9:13–14Have mercy on me, Yahweh. See my affliction by those who hate me, and lift me up from the gates of death;
- Ps 119:75Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
- 2 Cor 4:17For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an 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.