I will praise your mighty deeds, O Sovereign Lord. I will tell everyone that you alone are just.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord Yahweh. I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.
- KJV I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.
- BSB I will enter in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will proclaim Your righteousness—Yours alone.
- NKJV I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.
- NASB I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord God; I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.
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
The psalmist comes relying on the Lord's own mighty deeds and boasts only in God's righteousness, not his own.
Overview
He approaches God in the strength of what the Sovereign Lord has done, not in personal merit. By making mention of God's righteousness 'alone,' he disowns any self-righteousness, a posture central to biblical faith. This points forward to the gospel, in which sinners are accepted not by their own works but by the righteousness of God given through Christ (Philippians 3:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Phil 4:13I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
- Phil 3:9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;
- Zech 10:12I will strengthen them in Yahweh; and they will walk up and down in his name,” says Yahweh.
- Ps 29:11Yahweh will give strength to his people. Yahweh will bless his people with peace.
- Matt 6:33But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
- Ps 51:14Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
- Ps 71:2Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me.
- Ps 71:24My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, for they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me.
- Eph 3:16that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;
- Eph 6:10Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.
- Ps 71:15My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure.
- Isa 63:7I will tell of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh and the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has given to us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has given to them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
- 2 Th 1:6Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,
- Isa 40:31But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
- Deut 33:25Your bars will be iron and brass. As your days, so your strength will be.
- Rom 1:17For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”
- Isa 45:24–25They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.’” Even to him shall men come; and all those who raged against him shall be disappointed.
- 2 Tim 2:1You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
- Ps 71:19Your righteousness also, God, reaches to the heavens; you have done great things. God, who is like you?
- Ps 106:2Who can utter the mighty acts of Yahweh, or fully declare all his praise?
- Rom 10:3For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
- Isa 26:13Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make mention of your name.
- Rom 3:21But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;
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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 71:16 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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