I have sought Your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise.
Parallel translations
- WEB I sought your favor with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to your word.
- KJV I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.
- NKJV I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; Be merciful to me according to Your word.
- NASB I sought Your favor with all my heart; Be gracious to me according to Your word.
- NLT With all my heart I want your blessings. Be merciful as you promised.
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 seeks God's favor wholeheartedly and asks for mercy according to His promise. It matters because God's grace is sought earnestly and received on the basis of His word.
Overview
With his whole heart, the psalmist entreats God's favor and pleads for mercy grounded in God's promise. He seeks grace sincerely, not half-heartedly. This wholehearted appeal for mercy is fully answered in the gospel, where God's favor rests on sinners through the promise fulfilled in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ps 119:41May Your loving devotion come to me, O LORD, Your salvation, according to Your promise.
- Heb 10:22let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
- Ps 119:10With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me stray from Your commandments.
- Ps 119:170May my plea come before You; rescue me according to Your promise.
- 1 Kgs 13:6Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him as it was before.
- Ps 27:8My heart said, “Seek His face.” Your face, O LORD, I will seek.
- Ps 4:6Many ask, “Who can show us the good?” Shine the light of Your face upon us, O LORD.
- Matt 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
- Ps 119:76May Your loving devotion comfort me, I pray, according to Your promise to Your servant.
- Job 11:19You will lie down without fear, and many will court your favor.
- Ps 51:1–3For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.
- Ps 138:2I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your loving devotion and Your faithfulness; You have exalted Your name and Your word above all else.
- Ps 56:4In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
- Ps 119:65You are good to Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word.
- Ps 86:1–3A prayer of David. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
- Hos 7:14They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me.
- Ps 56:10In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 119:58 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.