Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me.
- KJV Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.
- BSB Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me.
- NKJV You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; For they are ever with me.
- NASB Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine.
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
God's commandments make him wiser than his enemies, because the word is always with him. Heavenly wisdom outmatches worldly cunning.
Overview
The psalmist credits God's commandments, ever present in his heart, with giving him wisdom surpassing that of his foes. True wisdom comes not from native intelligence but from constant communion with God's word. This wisdom from above, foolish to the world, is supremely found in Christ, the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24, 30; James 3:17).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Prov 2:6For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
- Ps 119:104–105Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. NUN
- Col 3:16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
- Jas 1:25But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
- Ps 119:11I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
- Deut 4:6Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
- Ps 119:30I have chosen the way of truth. I have set your ordinances before me.
- Deut 4:8What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you today?
- 1 Sam 18:14David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and Yahweh was with him.
- 1 Sam 18:30Then the princes of the Philistines went out; and as often as they went out, David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly esteemed.
- 1 Sam 18:5David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely; and Saul set him over the men of war. It was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.
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 119:98 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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