The wicked wait for me to destroy me; I will diligently consider Your testimonies.
Parallel translations
- WEB The wicked have waited for me, to destroy me. I will consider your statutes.
- KJV The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.
- 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.
- 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 has observed your testimonies. I love them exceedingly.
- Ps 119:31I cling to your statutes, Yahweh. Don’t let me be disappointed.
- Ps 119:69The proud have smeared a lie upon me. With my whole heart, I will keep your precepts.
- Ps 119:85–87The proud have dug pits for me, contrary to your law.
- Ps 10:8–10He lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless.
- Acts 25:3asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem; plotting to kill him on the way.
- Acts 23:21Therefore don’t yield to them, for more than forty men lie in wait for him, who have bound themselves under a curse neither to eat nor to drink until they have killed him. Now they are ready, looking for the promise from you.”
- Ps 119:61The ropes of the wicked bind me, but I won’t forget your law.
- 1 Sam 23:20–23Now therefore, O king, come down. According to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part will be to deliver him up into the king’s hand.”
- Ps 37:32The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to kill him.
- Ps 27:2When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
- Acts 12:11When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from everything the Jewish people were expecting.”
- Ps 38:12They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long.
- Ps 119:24Indeed your statutes are my delight, and my counselors. DALED
- Ps 119:129Your testimonies are wonderful, therefore my soul keeps them.
- Ps 119:125I am your servant. Give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies.
- Matt 26:3–5Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.
- Ps 119:111I have taken your testimonies as a heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.
- 2 Sam 17:1–4Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.
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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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