Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.
Parallel translations
- WEB Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.
- KJV Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
- NKJV Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.
- NASB Turn my eyes away from looking at what is worthless, And revive me in Your ways.
- NLT Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word.
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 asks God to turn his eyes from worthless things and to revive him in God's ways. It matters because guarding the eyes from vanity and finding life in God's path require His help.
Overview
The psalmist prays for protection from gazing on empty, vain things and for renewed life in God's ways. He links what we look at to the health of the soul. This guarding of the eyes and longing for true life anticipate the gospel call to fix our eyes on Christ, the author of life, rather than on passing vanities.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 1 Jn 2:16For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.
- Prov 4:25Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.
- Isa 33:15He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—
- Num 15:39These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.
- Job 31:1“I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?
- Ps 119:40How I long for Your precepts! Revive me in Your righteousness.
- Matt 5:28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
- Prov 23:5When you glance at wealth, it disappears, for it makes wings for itself and flies like an eagle to the sky.
- Ps 71:20Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.
- 2 Sam 11:2One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
- Josh 7:21When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
- Ps 119:25My soul cleaves to the dust; revive me according to Your word.
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 119:37 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.