I told you my plans, and you answered. Now teach me your decrees.
Parallel translations
- WEB I declared my ways, and you answered me. Teach me your statutes.
- KJV I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me: teach me thy statutes.
- BSB I recounted my ways, and You answered me; teach me Your statutes.
- NKJV I have declared my ways, and You answered me; Teach me Your statutes.
- NASB I have told of my ways, and You have answered me; Teach me Your statutes.
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 recounted his ways, God answered him, and he asks to be taught God's statutes. It matters because honest openness before God leads to instruction in His word.
Overview
The psalmist lays his life open before God, who responds, and then asks to be taught God's statutes further. Confession and teachability go together in his walk. This reflects the gospel posture of bringing our ways into God's light and submitting to be shaped by His word through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 86:11Teach me your way, Yahweh. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.
- Ps 25:4Show me your ways, Yahweh. Teach me your paths.
- Ps 27:11Teach me your way, Yahweh. Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies.
- Ps 32:5I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
- Prov 28:13He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
- Ps 25:8–9Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore he will instruct sinners in the way.
- Ps 143:8–10Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.
- Ps 38:18For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin.
- Ps 119:12Blessed are you, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes.
- 1 Kgs 8:36then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
- Ps 119:106I have sworn, and have confirmed it, that I will obey your righteous ordinances.
- Ps 51:1–19For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 119:26 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.