I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will observe your statutes. Don’t utterly forsake me. BET
- BSB I will keep Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me.
- 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 71:9Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.
- Ps 51:11Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
- Ps 38:21–22Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me.
- Ps 119:176I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
- Ps 71:18Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.
- Josh 24:15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
- Ps 119:106I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.
- Ps 119:16I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
- Ps 119:115–117Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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.