Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.
- BSB May Your compassion come to me, that I may live, for Your 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 119:41Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word.
- Lam 3:22–23It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
- Ps 1:2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
- Ps 119:174I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight.
- Ps 119:24Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.
- Ps 119:47And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.
- Dan 9:18O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
- Heb 8:10–12For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
- Ps 51:1–3Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies 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
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