Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through 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.
- BSB Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.
- 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.
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 lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.
- Prov 4:25Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.
- Isa 33:15He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil —
- Num 15:39and it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it, and remember all Yahweh’s commandments, and do them; and that you not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute;
- Job 31:1“I made a covenant with my eyes, how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?
- Ps 119:40Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness. WAW
- Matt 5:28but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.
- Prov 23:5Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
- Ps 71:20You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
- 2 Sam 11:2At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at.
- Josh 7:21When I saw among the plunder a beautiful Babylonian robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, then I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, with the silver under it.”
- Ps 119:25My soul is laid low in 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.