I will keep Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will observe your statutes. Don’t utterly forsake me. BET
- KJV I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
- NKJV I will keep Your statutes; Oh, do not forsake me utterly! ב Beth
- NASB I will keep Your statutes; Do not utterly abandon me! Beth
- NLT I will obey your decrees. Please don’t give up on me! Beth
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 resolves to keep God's statutes while pleading that God would not utterly abandon him. It matters because faithful obedience is paired with humble dependence on God's sustaining presence.
Overview
Closing the first stanza (Aleph), the psalmist commits to obedience yet immediately cries out for God not to forsake him completely. He knows his resolve will fail without God's help. This prayer is answered decisively in Christ, who was forsaken on the cross so that His people would never be utterly forsaken.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 71:9Do not discard me in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.
- Ps 51:11Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
- Ps 38:21–22Do not forsake me, O LORD; be not far from me, O my God.
- Ps 119:176I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.
- Ps 71:18Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.
- 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!”
- Ps 119:106I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments.
- Ps 119:16I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.
- Ps 119:115–117Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may obey the commandments of my God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 119:8 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.