The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
Parallel translations
- WEB Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes.
- KJV The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
- BSB The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
- NASB The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
- NLT The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.
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 precepts are right and gladden the heart; his commandment is pure and gives light to the eyes. Scripture brings joy and clarity.
Overview
Continuing the praise of God's Word, David affirms that obeying God's directives produces genuine joy, and his pure commands illuminate understanding. Far from being a burden, the Word is a delight that enlightens. This anticipates the believer's experience of Scripture as a lamp that reveals the way of life (Ps 119:105).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 40
- Ps 12:6Yahweh’s words are flawless words, as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.
- Ps 119:105Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.
- Jer 15:16Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.
- Prov 30:5“Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
- Ps 119:92Unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.
- Prov 2:6For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
- Ps 119:128Therefore I consider all of your precepts to be right. I hate every false way. PEY
- Ps 119:80Let my heart be blameless toward your decrees, that I may not be disappointed. KAF
- Rom 7:22For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,
- Prov 6:23For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
- Ps 119:98–100Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me.
- Rom 3:20Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
- Gal 2:19For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
- Rom 7:7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting, unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
- Ps 119:16I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. GIMEL
- Deut 4:5–6Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it.
- Ps 119:40Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness. WAW
- Ps 119:14I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, as much as in all riches.
- Ps 119:12Blessed are you, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes.
- Ps 119:171Let my lips utter praise, for you teach me your statutes.
- Ps 40:8I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”
- Ps 105:45that they might keep his statutes, and observe his laws. Praise Yah!
- Ps 13:3Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
- Ps 119:143Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me. Your commandments are my delight.
- Ps 119:130The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.
- Gen 26:5because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
- Exod 18:16When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.”
- Ps 119:121I have done what is just and righteous. Don’t leave me to my oppressors.
- Ezek 36:27I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.
- Isa 64:5You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned. We have been in sin for a long time. Shall we be saved?
- Ps 119:54Your statutes have been my songs, in the house where I live.
- Deut 12:11–12then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh.
- Ps 119:24Indeed your statutes are my delight, and my counselors. DALED
- Gal 3:21Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could make alive, most certainly righteousness would have been of the law.
- Neh 9:13“You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,
- Neh 8:12All the people went their way to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
- Rom 7:12–14Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
- Deut 16:11You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
- Deut 16:14You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates.
- Gal 3:10–13For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
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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 19:8 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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