If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Parallel translations
- WEB If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
- BSB If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
- NKJV If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
- NASB If You, Lord, were to keep account of guilty deeds, Lord, who could stand?
- NLT Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive?
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
If God kept a record of sins, no one could stand before Him. It confronts every person with the reality that all are guilty before a holy God.
Overview
The psalmist asks who could survive if the Lord marked every iniquity, acknowledging universal guilt before God. No human stands on his own righteousness. This drives the reader to the only remedy, the forgiveness ultimately provided through Christ's atoning death.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 143:2And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
- Ps 76:7Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?
- Rom 3:20–24Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
- John 8:7–9So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
- Rev 6:17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
- Job 10:14If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
- Nah 1:6Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
- Mal 3:2But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
- Job 15:14What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
- Job 9:20If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
- Isa 53:6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
- Job 9:2–3I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 130:3 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.