You have ordained Your precepts, That we are to 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.
- BSB You have ordained Your precepts, that we should keep them diligently.
- NKJV You have commanded us To keep Your precepts 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 loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
- John 14:21One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
- Matt 28:20teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Jer 7:23but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
- Deut 28:1–14It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
- John 14:15If you love me, keep my commandments.
- Deut 12:32Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
- Phil 4:8–9Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think about these things.
- Deut 30:16For I command you today to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it.
- Josh 1:7Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded you. Don’t turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
- Deut 6:17You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.
- Deut 11:22For if you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him;
- Deut 4:1Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.
- Deut 4:9Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children’s children;
- Deut 11:13It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
- Deut 5:29–33Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, 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
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