Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.
Parallel translations
- WEB How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.
- KJV O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
- BSB Oh, how I love Your law! All day long it is my meditation.
- NASB ¶How I love Your Law! It is my meditation all the day.
- NLT Oh, how I love your instructions! I think about them all day long.
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 exclaims how deeply he loves God's law, making it his meditation all day long. Love for the word fills his every waking thought.
Overview
Opening the MEM stanza, the psalmist bursts out in heartfelt affection for God's law, which occupies his mind continually. This is not cold legalism but warm devotion to the God who speaks. Such delight in Scripture mirrors the blessed man of Psalm 1 and finds its perfection in Christ, who loved and lived by the Father's word (Ps. 1:2; John 4:34).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 1:2but his delight is in Yahweh’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.
- Prov 2:10For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
- Ps 119:159Consider how I love your precepts. Revive me, Yahweh, according to your loving kindness.
- Ps 119:48I reach out my hands for your commandments, which I love. I will meditate on your statutes. ZAYIN
- Josh 1:8This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.
- Deut 17:19It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;
- Ps 119:167My soul has observed your testimonies. I love them exceedingly.
- Ps 119:127Therefore I love your commandments more than gold, yes, more than pure gold.
- Deut 6:6–9These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart;
- Ps 119:165Those who love your law have great peace. Nothing causes them to stumble.
- Ps 119:113I hate double-minded men, but I love your law.
- Prov 18:1An unfriendly man pursues selfishness, and defies all sound judgment.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 119:97 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.