Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
Parallel translations
- WEB Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
- KJV Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
- NKJV Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.
- NASB ¶Teach me to do Your will, For You are my God; Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
- NLT Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.
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 asks God to teach him to do His will and lead him by His good Spirit on level ground. It joins desire for obedience with dependence on the Spirit.
Overview
David wants not merely rescue but holiness, asking to be taught God's will because God is his God. The mention of God's good Spirit leading him anticipates the Spirit's work in guiding and sanctifying believers. In the new covenant the Spirit writes God's law on hearts and leads God's children (Ezekiel 36:27; Romans 8:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 34
- Ps 25:4–5Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths.
- John 14:26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.
- Heb 13:21equip you with every good thing to do His will. And may He accomplish in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
- Ps 23:3He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.
- Ps 119:12Blessed are You, O LORD; teach me Your statutes.
- Neh 9:20You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold Your manna from their mouths, and You gave them water for their thirst.
- 2 Tim 1:7For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
- John 16:13–15However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.
- Rom 15:13Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Ps 25:8–9Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way.
- 1 Jn 2:27And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.
- Rom 8:26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.
- Col 1:9–10For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
- Rom 5:5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.
- Ps 31:14But I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.”
- Ps 119:35Direct me in the path of Your commandments, for there I find delight.
- Ps 25:12Who is the man who fears the LORD? He will instruct him in the path chosen for him.
- Rom 8:2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
- Ps 140:6I say to the LORD, “You are my God.” Hear, O LORD, my cry for help.
- Eph 4:30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
- Gal 5:22–23But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- Isa 63:14Like cattle going down to the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. You led Your people this way to make for Yourself a glorious name.
- Ps 63:1A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God. Earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You. My body yearns for You in a dry and weary land without water.
- Mic 4:2And many nations will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
- Ps 119:5–7Oh, that my ways were committed to keeping Your statutes!
- Eph 5:9for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.
- Ps 118:28You are my God, and I will give You thanks. You are my God, and I will exalt You.
- Ps 139:24See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting.
- Ps 22:1For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
- 1 Th 4:1–2Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more.
- Rom 15:30Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
- Rom 8:14–16For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
- Matt 28:20and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
- Isa 29:10For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, O prophets; He has covered your heads, O seers.
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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 143:10 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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