The LORD is my portion; I have promised to keep Your words.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh is my portion. I promised to obey your words.
- KJV Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.
- NKJV You are my portion, O Lord; I have said that I would keep Your words.
- NASB ¶The Lord is my portion; I have promised to keep Your words.
- NLT Lord, you are mine! I promise to obey your words!
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 declares the LORD to be his portion and promises to keep His words. It matters because finding our all in God leads to wholehearted obedience.
Overview
Opening the Cheth stanza, the psalmist confesses that God Himself is his inheritance and pledges obedience to His words. With God as his portion, no earthly possession can rival Him. This echoes the Levites' inheritance in the LORD and points to Christ, in whom believers possess every spiritual blessing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Lam 3:24“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
- Ps 16:5The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.
- Ps 142:5I cry to You, O LORD: “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”
- Jer 10:16The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance—the LORD of Hosts is His name.
- Ps 73:26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
- Ps 119:115Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may obey the commandments of my God.
- Josh 24:24–27So the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey His voice.”
- Josh 24:21“No!” replied the people. “We will serve the LORD!”
- Josh 24:15But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”
- Josh 24:18And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God!”
- Ps 119:106I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments.
- Ps 66:14the vows that my lips promised and my mouth spoke in my distress.
- Deut 26:17–18Today you have proclaimed that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes and commandments and ordinances, and listen to His voice.
- Neh 10:29–39hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to carefully obey all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 119:57 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.