My soul is consumed with longing for Your judgments at all times.
Parallel translations
- WEB My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.
- KJV My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
- NKJV My soul breaks with longing For Your judgments at all times.
- NASB My soul is crushed with longing For Your ordinances at all times.
- NLT I am always overwhelmed with a desire for your regulations.
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's soul is consumed with constant longing for God's ordinances. It matters because deep, persistent desire for God's word marks a heart truly devoted to Him.
Overview
Such intense, breaking longing for God's judgments shows that Scripture is the psalmist's continual craving. His desire is not occasional but always present. This hunger and thirst for righteousness is the very longing Jesus pronounces blessed and promises to satisfy in the gospel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 42:1–2For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God.
- Ps 84:2My soul longs, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
- Ps 63:1A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
- Job 23:11–12My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside.
- Ps 119:131I open my mouth and pant, longing for Your commandments.
- Ps 119:174I long for Your salvation, O LORD, and Your law is my delight.
- Ps 119:40How I long for Your precepts! Revive me in Your righteousness.
- Job 27:10Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?
- Prov 17:17A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
- Rev 3:15–16I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other!
- Ps 106:3Blessed are those who uphold justice, who practice righteousness at all times.
- Song 5:8O daughters of Jerusalem, I adjure you, if you find my beloved, tell him I am sick with love.
- Prov 13:12Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 119:20 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.