My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.
Parallel translations
- KJV My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
- BSB My soul is consumed with longing for Your 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 Chief Musician. A contemplation by the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.
- Ps 84:2My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
- Ps 63:1A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah. God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.
- Job 23:11–12My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned aside.
- Ps 119:131I opened my mouth wide and panted, for I longed for your commandments.
- Ps 119:174I have longed for your salvation, Yahweh. Your law is my delight.
- Ps 119:40Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness. WAW
- Job 27:10Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?
- Prov 17:17A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity.
- Rev 3:15–16“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.
- Ps 106:3Blessed are those who keep justice. Blessed is one who does what is right at all times.
- Song 5:8I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love.
- Prov 13:12Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when longing is fulfilled, it 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.