You have ordained Your precepts, that we should keep them diligently.
Parallel translations
- WEB You have commanded your precepts, that we should fully obey them.
- KJV Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
- NKJV You have commanded us To keep Your precepts diligently.
- NASB You have ordained Your precepts, That we are to keep them diligently.
- NLT You have charged us to keep your commandments carefully.
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
God has issued His precepts with the expectation that we keep them diligently and completely. It matters because His commands carry full authority and call for wholehearted, not partial, obedience.
Overview
The psalmist acknowledges that God has commanded His precepts to be kept fully, underscoring the binding seriousness of divine instruction. This standard of complete obedience exposes our inability to keep it perfectly and points to the need for grace. Christ alone rendered the full obedience the law demands, and His righteousness is credited to those who trust Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- 1 Jn 5:3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,
- John 14:21Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
- Matt 28:20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
- Jer 7:23but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.
- Deut 28:1–14“Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
- John 14:15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
- Deut 12:32See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.
- Phil 4:8–9Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things.
- Deut 30:16For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
- Josh 1:7Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.
- Deut 6:17You are to diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God and the testimonies and statutes He has given you.
- Deut 11:22For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him—
- Deut 4:1Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
- Deut 4:9Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.
- Deut 11:13So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
- Deut 5:29–33If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever.
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 119:4 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.