May Your compassion come to me, that I may live, for Your law is my delight.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.
- KJV Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.
- NKJV Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; For Your law is my delight.
- NASB May Your compassion come to me so that I may live, For Your Law is my delight.
- NLT Surround me with your tender mercies so I may live, for your instructions are my delight.
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
He asks for God's tender mercies so that he may truly live, because God's law is his delight. Life and joy flow together from God's mercy and word.
Overview
The psalmist seeks God's compassion as the very source of his life, showing that he depends on mercy to survive his trials. Remarkably, he can call God's law his delight even in affliction, for the word sustains his soul. This points to Christ, who delighted to do God's will and gives life to all who come to Him (John 6:63; Ps. 40:8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 119:41May Your loving devotion come to me, O LORD, Your salvation, according to Your promise.
- Lam 3:22–23Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.
- Ps 1:2But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.
- Ps 119:174I long for Your salvation, O LORD, and Your law is my delight.
- Ps 119:24Your testimonies are indeed my delight; they are my counselors.
- Ps 119:47I delight in Your commandments because I love them.
- Dan 9:18Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.
- Heb 8:10–12For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- 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.
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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 119:77 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.