I will obey your decrees. Please don’t give up on me! Beth
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.
- 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
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 71:9Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.
- Ps 51:11Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your holy Spirit from me.
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
- Ps 38:21–22Don’t forsake me, Yahweh. My God, don’t be far from me.
- Ps 119:176I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don’t forget your commandments.
- Ps 71:18Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don’t forsake me, until I have declared your strength to the next generation, your might to everyone who is to come.
- Josh 24:15If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”
- Ps 119:106I have sworn, and have confirmed it, that I will obey your righteous ordinances.
- Ps 119:16I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. GIMEL
- Ps 119:115–117Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep 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.