How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum!
Parallel translations
- WEB How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum!
- KJV How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
- NKJV How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
- NASB ¶How precious also are Your thoughts for me, God! How vast is the sum of them!
- NLT How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
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
David marvels at how precious and vast God's thoughts are toward him. It celebrates that the all-knowing God thinks lovingly and abundantly of His people.
Overview
Having pondered God's knowledge of him, David turns to God's thoughts toward him, finding them precious and beyond counting. This shifts the psalm from awe at being known to delight in being cherished. That God's mind is set on His people in steadfast love is supremely shown in the gift of His Son (Romans 8:32).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 40:5Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.
- Jer 29:11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
- Isa 55:8–9“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
- Ps 92:5How great are Your works, O LORD, how deep are Your thoughts!
- Ps 36:7How precious is Your loving devotion, O God, that the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings!
- Eph 3:9–10and to illuminate for everyone the stewardship of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
- Ps 31:19How great is Your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have bestowed before the sons of men on those who take refuge in You!
- Prov 8:31I was rejoicing in His whole world, delighting together in the sons of men.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 139:17 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.