Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness. WAW
- BSB How I long for Your precepts! Revive me in Your righteousness.
- NKJV Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness. ו Waw
- NASB Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me through Your righteousness. Vav
- NLT I long to obey your commandments! Renew my life with your goodness. Waw
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 longs for God's precepts and asks to be revived in His righteousness. It matters because heartfelt desire for God's word is met by His life-giving righteousness.
Overview
Closing the Waw stanza, the psalmist expresses his deep longing for God's precepts and prays for renewal grounded in God's righteousness. His hope for life rests on God's just character. This anticipates the gospel, where God's righteousness, revealed in Christ, becomes the source of life for all who long for Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- John 10:10The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
- Ps 119:20My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
- Ps 119:159Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness.
- 2 Cor 7:1Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
- Phil 3:13–14Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
- Ps 119:37Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.
- Ps 119:25My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.
- Matt 26:41Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
- Gal 5:17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
- 1 Cor 15:45And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
- Eph 2:5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
- Ps 119:156Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments.
- Ps 119:88Quicken me after thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth.
- Ps 119:107I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O LORD, according unto thy word.
- Ps 119:149Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: O LORD, quicken me according to thy judgment.
- Ps 119:5O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!
- 3 Jn 1:2Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
- Rom 7:24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
- Mark 9:24And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
- John 5:21For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
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 119:40 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.