The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.
Parallel translations
- WEB The wicked have waited for me, to destroy me. I will consider your statutes.
- BSB The wicked wait to destroy me, but I will ponder Your testimonies.
- NKJV The wicked wait for me to destroy me, But I will consider Your testimonies.
- NASB The wicked wait for me to destroy me; I will diligently consider Your testimonies.
- NLT Though the wicked hide along the way to kill me, I will quietly keep my mind on your laws.
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
While the wicked lie in wait to destroy him, the psalmist fixes his attention on God's statutes. He meets mortal danger by meditating on the word.
Overview
Even as enemies plot his death, the psalmist's mind is occupied not with fear but with God's testimonies. His chosen response to threat is contemplation of the word, which steadies him under pressure. This composure amid hostility models the peace that guards those whose minds are fixed on God (Isa. 26:3; Phil. 4:6-7).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Ps 119:167My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.
- Ps 119:31I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.
- Ps 119:69The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.
- Ps 119:85–87The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after thy law.
- Ps 10:8–10He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
- Acts 25:3And desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him.
- Acts 23:21But do not thou yield unto them: for there lie in wait for him of them more than forty men, which have bound themselves with an oath, that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him: and now are they ready, looking for a promise from thee.
- Ps 119:61The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law.
- 1 Sam 23:20–23Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of thy soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.
- Ps 37:32The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
- Ps 27:2When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
- Acts 12:11And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the LORD hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.
- Ps 38:12They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
- Ps 119:24Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.
- Ps 119:129Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.
- Ps 119:125I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.
- Matt 26:3–5Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas,
- Ps 119:111Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.
- 2 Sam 17:1–4Moreover Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
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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 119:95 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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