Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.
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.
- BSB Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
- 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.
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, Yahweh. Teach me your paths.
- John 14:26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.
- Heb 13:21make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
- Ps 23:3He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
- Ps 119:12Blessed are you, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes.
- Neh 9:20You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn’t withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.
- 2 Tim 1:7For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
- John 16:13–15However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you things that are coming.
- Rom 15:13Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Ps 25:8–9Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore he will instruct sinners in the way.
- 1 Jn 2:27As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him.
- Rom 8:26In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
- Col 1:9–10For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
- Rom 5:5and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- Ps 31:14But I trust in you, Yahweh. I said, “You are my God.”
- Ps 119:35Direct me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them.
- Ps 25:12What man is he who fears Yahweh? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.
- Rom 8:2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
- Ps 140:6I said to Yahweh, “You are my God.” Listen to the cry of my petitions, Yahweh.
- Eph 4:30Don’t 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, faith,
- Isa 63:14As the livestock that go down into the valley, Yahweh’s Spirit caused them to rest. So you led your people, to make yourself a glorious name.
- Ps 63:1A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah. God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.
- Mic 4:2Many nations will go and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem;
- Ps 119:5–7Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!
- Eph 5:9for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
- Ps 118:28You are my God, and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I will exalt you.
- Ps 139:24See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
- Ps 22:1For the Chief Musician; set to “The Doe of the Morning.” A Psalm by David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
- 1 Th 4:1–2Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that you abound more and more.
- Rom 15:30Now I beg you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,
- Rom 8:14–16For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
- Matt 28:20teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
- Isa 29:10For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the 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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